ConsoleAsksFor 4.1.0-prerelease-20241115111050

ConsoleAsksFor

ConsoleAsksFor is library for asking input in a console app easily.

Goal

The aim of ConsoleAsksFor is removing the hassle of retrieving/parsing/retrying input in a console app.

Installation

You can download the latest release / pre-release NuGet packages from nuget:

Package:
ConsoleAsksFor
ConsoleAsksFor.NodaTime.ISO

Setup

Create with console factory (make sure it is first line in console so it can highjack Console.Out and Console.Error):

ConsoleFactory.Create();

And register in DI

services.AddSingleton(console)

Start using

Some examples:

var isSure = await console.AskForBool("Are you sure?", cancellationToken: cancellationToken);
var age = await console.AskForInt("What is your age?", Between(0, 125));
var length = await console.AskForDecimal("What is your length (in meters)?", Scale.Two, Between(0m, 2.5m));
var appointmentStart = await console.AskForDateTimeOffset("How late should we meet?", TimeZoneInfo.Local, AtLeast(DateTimeOffset.Now), defaultValue: DateTimeOffset.Now.AddHours(1));
var favoriteColor = await console.AskForEnum<ConsoleColor>("What is your favorite color?");
var preferredName = await console.AskForItem("Which name do you prefer?", ["Jantje", "Pietje"]);
var directory = await console.AskForExistingDirectory("Where to store file?", defaultValue: new DirectoryInfo(@"C:\Temp"));
var name = await console.AskForString("What is your name?");
var zipcode = await console.AskForString("What is your Dutch zipcode?", new Regex("^[1-9][0-9]{3}[A-Z]{2}$"), "Format: '5555AA' where first digit is not a 0");
var agb = await console.AskForStringBasedValueObject<Agb>("What is your agb?", Agb.TryParse, x => x.ToString(), "8 numbers");
var uzovi = await console.AskForStringBasedValueObject<Uzovi>("What is your uzovi?", "4 numbers"); // Uzovi implements IParsable<Uzovi> and IFormattable
var pw = await console.AskForPassword("What is the secret code?");

Demo

var console = ConsoleFactory.Create();
console.WriteInfoLine("Tip: Use arrows to go through history.");
var wordOfTheDay = await console.AskForString("What is your word of the day?");

console.WriteInfoLine("Tip: Use tab for intellisense.");
var likableWords = await console.AskForItems("Which of these words do you like?", ["Whale", "Yesterday", "Some", "Stereo", "Random"]);

Features

• Default values
• History
  • ByQuestionTextAndType (default)
  • ByQuestionType
  • NotFiltered
• Basic Intellisense
• Colors
  • Visual feedback whether current answer is correct
  • Different colors for different line types
  • Customizable
• Cancelable
  • Support for cancellationTokens
  • Push F12 to throw TaskCanceledByF12Exception
• Basic multithreading support:
  • During asking questions other output to Console is suspended
  • When multiple threads are asking questions, questions are queued

Supported types

ConsoleAsksFor

• AskForBool
• AskForByte
• AskForSignedByte
• AskForShort
• AskForUnsignedShort
• AskForInt
• AskForUnsignedInt
• AskForLong
• AskForUnsignedLong
• AskForDecimal
• AskForDateOnly
• AskForTimeOnly
• AskForDateTime
• AskForDateTimeOffset
• AskForTimeSpan
• AskForDirectory
• AskForExistingDirectory
• AskForNewDirectory
• AskForFileName
• AskForExistingFileName
• AskForNewFileName
• AskForEnum<T>
• AskForFlaggedEnum<T>
• AskForItem<T>
• AskForItems<T>
• AskForString
• AskForStringBasedValueObject<T>
• AskForPassword

ConsoleAsksFor.NodaTime.ISO

• AskForInstant
• AskForLocalDate
• AskForLocalDateTime
• AskForLocalTime
• AskForZonedDateTime
• AskForAnnualDate
• AskForYearMonth

Release notes

See the Releases page.

Versioning

ConsoleAsksFor follows Semantic Versioning 2.0.0 for the releases published to nuget.org.

Credits

• Sergey Shumov for showing his AsyncAutoResetEvent.
• Jerrie Pelser for showing how to enable ansi colors in windows.
• JSQuareD for showing how to cancel Console.ReadKey.
• Sergey for showing how to lock resource in combination with async/await.
• Asbjørn Ulsberg for showing how to get amount of digits after decimal point.

Other

Another reason to make ConsoleAsksFor is because I have never worked with github and never created public nuget package. So this is a little brain exercise I guess 😃.