Vb.net Console Application Parsing Command Line Parameters

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Hi,

I have limited very limited knowledge on parsing data in vb.net 2013 and hope someone with more experience can advise:

Overview
I would like to add three command line switches and values to my console application and then parse them into variables, for onward use within my program. The command line options would hopefully look like this:

my.exe /d dateserial /p plaintext

or

my.exe /d dateserial /c cyphertext

These options depend on whether the program was encrypting or de-crypting any given string. I would also like in incorporate some basic error handling, like if /c /p switches exist on the same command line, stop the program and display usage.

My project currently looks like this:

VB

Dim dtext As String = String.Empty 'date serial string 
Dim ptext As String = String.Empty 'plain text string
Dim ctext As String = String.Empty 'cypher text string 

Dim clArgs() As String = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs()

If clArgs.Count() = 5 Then
   For index As Integer = 1 To 3 Step 1
       If clArgs(index) = "d/"; Then
          dtext = clArgs(index + 1)
          MsgBox(dtext) ' To ensure variables get populated correctly.  
       Else
           Console.WriteLine("Usage: my.exe /d dateserial /p plaintext or my.exe /d dateserial /c cyphertext")
       End If
   Next
End If

The code snip-it above only partly completes the task, so thanks in advance to anyone that can advise on a more complete and robust solution.

Posted 25-Feb-15 8:32am

Member 11479907

Updated 25-Feb-15 8:55am

Maciej Los

v2

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pdoxtader · Answer 1 · 2015-02-25T08:51:00

Have a look at Regex.Split():

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.regularexpressions.regex.split%28v=vs.110%29.aspx[^]

I think that's what you'll need.

You can do stuff like:

VB

Dim yourArgs() as String = Regex.Split(clArgs, "/")

For Each arg as String in yourArgs
   if arg.Contains("c ") Then
     ' Your code here
   End If
Next

This is just a quick and dirty example of how to use regex.split() and .Contains(). There are more elegant ways of doing this, and you should also have a look at String.Substring() and String.Replace().

- Pete

Sergey Alexandrovich Kryukov · Answer 2 · 2015-02-25T10:02:00

Please see my article, and also another article I reference and recommend in it: Enumeration-based Command Line Utility[^].

I provide extremely easy-to-use library. Now, just in case: please don't tell me "this is C#, not VB.NET". First, in .NET, this is absolutely not important; C# is always better because it is standardized, in contrast to VB.NET. Besides, you can automatically translate any assembly to VB.NET with very good quality (use ILSpy, in particular).

—SA

Member 11479907 · Answer 3 · 2015-02-26T05:45:00

Thank you for the ideas guys, they were very much appreciated. This is a vb.net app. However after further googling and tweaking of the parameters, I achieved the desired result with the following code. I also wanted to incorporate some basic error handling, so as my console program would only ever have 5 command line args and these fields needed to be fixed, I came up with this primitive, but effective solution:

VB

Dim dtext As String = String.Empty
Dim ptext As String = String.Empty
Dim ctext As String = String.Empty

Dim clArgs() As String = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs()

If clArgs.Count() <> 5 Then
   Console.WriteLine("Correct usage:""/p plaintext /d dateserial""or")
   Console.WriteLine("Correct usage:""/c cyphertext /d dateserial")
End If

If Not (clArgs.Contains("/p") Or clArgs.Contains("/c")) And (clArgs.Contains("/d")) Then
   Exit Sub
End If

If clArgs.Contains("/p") And clArgs.Contains("/d") Then
   For index As Integer = 1 To 3 Step 2
      If clArgs(index) = "/p" Then
         ptext = clArgs(index + 1)
         dtext = clArgs(index + 3)
         Console.WriteLine(ptext)
         Console.WriteLine(dtext)
      End If
   Next
End If

If clArgs.Contains("/c") And clArgs.Contains("/d") Then
   For index As Integer = 1 To 3 Step 2
      If clArgs(index) = "/c" Then
         ctext = clArgs(index + 1)
         dtext = clArgs(index + 3)
         Console.WriteLine(ctext)
         Console.WriteLine(dtext)
      End If
   Next
End If

Vb.net Console Application Parsing Command Line Parameters

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