C# Console receive input with pipe

Patrick Desjardins picture Patrick Desjardins · Oct 14, 2008 · Viewed 34.4k times · Source

I know how to program Console application with parameters, example : myProgram.exe param1 param2.

My question is, how can I make my program works with |, example : echo "word" | myProgram.exe?

Answer

Matthew Scharley picture Matthew Scharley · Oct 14, 2008

You need to use Console.Read() and Console.ReadLine() as if you were reading user input. Pipes replace user input transparently. You can't use both easily (although I'm sure it's quite possible...).

Edit:

A simple cat style program:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string s;
        while ((s = Console.ReadLine()) != null)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(s);
        }

    }
}

And when run, as expected, the output:

C:\...\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug>echo "Foo bar baz" | ConsoleApplication1.exe
"Foo bar baz"

C:\...\ConsoleApplication1\bin\Debug>