ConsoleUtilities

NuGet package for various console utilities

Newest version is 1.1.2

What does it do

Colored Text

// You can transform all your apps  by replacing "System.Console" with "ConsoleColors" class.
// And most methods will still work!
using Console = GreatConsole.ConsoleColors;

// You don't have to type "ConsoleUtilities.ConsoleColors.AllowedColor" all the time.
using static GreatConsole.ConsoleColors.AllowedColor;

Console.WriteLine("Hello World!", Green); // It will pring "Hello World!" in green

Don't want whole line to be same color?

We got you covered!

using Console = GreatConsole.ConsoleColors;

// This code will print blue (&b') "Hello", red (&r') "World" and green (&g') "!".
Console.WriteFromString("&b'Hello &r'World&g'!");

There are "color stamps" helping you in your work:

• &' / &w' - White
• &bl' - Black
• &b' - Blue
• &c' - Cyan
• &db' - Dark Blue
• &dc' - Dark Cyan
• &dgr' - Dark Gray
• &dg' - Dark Green
• &dm' - Dark Magenta
• &dr' - Dark Red
• &dy' - Dark Yellow
• &gr' - Gray
• &g' - Green
• &m' - Magenta
• &r' - Red
• &y' - Yellow

Single-choice and multi-choice menus

Menus allow user to choose from a bunch of options (GreatConsole.MenuOption). Each options consists of a name (string) and a value (object? it's by default null).
Constructor of a menu takes the prompt and an array of options. It doesn't appear when the constructor is called and you have to run the Show() method on the menu.
The Show() method has two optional parameters:

• startIndex changes which option is selected by default when shown (default is 0)
• allowEscape changes whether the user can press the Escape key to exit the menu and return -1 for single-choice menu and an empty List<int> for multi-choice menus (default is true)

There are two types of menus: single-choice and multi-choice.

Single-choice allows user to use arrow keys to select one of the options and press the Enter key to choose it.
For single-choice menu use this code:

using static GreatConsole.ConsoleColors.AllowedColor;
using GreatConsole;

MenuOption[] options = new MenuOption[] {
    new MenuOption("Option 1", 1),
    new MenuOption("Option 2", "second option", DarkGreen, Green),
    new MenuOption("Option 3", new object[] { "option", "number", 3 }, Cyan, Yellow),
};

ConsoleMenu menu = new ConsoleMenu("Choose option: ", options);

int index = menu.Show(allowEscape: false);

ConsoleColors.WriteLine($"Selected Index: {index}, Selected Option Name: {options[index].name}, Chosen Option Value: {options[index].value}", Green);

Multi-choice allows the user to select multiple options. The option is added to the selection using the Space key and the interaction is ended with the Enter key.
And for multi-choice menu use this:

using static GreatConsole.ConsoleColors.AllowedColor;
using GreatConsole;

MenuOption[] options = new MenuOption[] {
    new MenuOption("Option 1"), // It's by default null
    new MenuOption("Option 2", 2, DarkGreen, Green),
    new MenuOption("Option 3", new string[] { "this", "can", "be", "anything" }, Cyan, Yellow),
};

ConsoleMultichoiceMenu menu = new ConsoleMultichoiceMenu("Choose option: ", options);

List<int> chosenOptions = menu.Show(allowEscape: false);

foreach (int option in chosenOptions)
{
    ConsoleColors.WriteLine($"Chosen Index: {option}, Chosen Option Name: {options[option].name}, Chosen Option Value: {options[option].value}", Green);
}

Tip

You can put the option array directly in menu's constructor and get it later using the GetMenuOptions() method in the menu instance, which works for both menu types.

Progress Bars

Last functionality of this package is progress bars.

After using the constructor, same as with the menus, it won't actually appear until you invoke the Show() method. This method writes the progress bar initially then you can update the progress bar using the Update() method. It takes a float percentage (0.5f for 50%, 0.35f for 35% and so on). \

Important

You can't write anything between the invoking Show() and each invoking of Update(), as the the Update() method relies on the cursor being on the end of the progress bar.

using GreatConsole;

ConsoleProgressBar bar = new ConsoleProgressBar();

bar.Show();

for (int i = 0; i <= 20; i++) {
    bar.Update(i/20f);

    Thread.Sleep(100);
}

This example code will show a progress bar and update every 100 milliseconds until it reaches 100% after 2.1 seconds.

The 'f' after the '20' is important because it makes the division return float values instead of rounding to an integer.

How to install it

You have two options:

• Go to NuGet page of this project and download it.
• In Visual Studio's menu bar go to Project >> Manage NuGet Packages and find this package.