What is console application in C#? (With Example)

In this article, I have mentioned what is console application in C# with an example in Visual Studio.

The Console application is an application that runs in a console output window like a C and C++ program. The Console application does not have a graphical user interface. A Console Application takes inputs and displays output at a command-line console with access to three basic streams: standard input, standard output, and standard error.

Create Console Application in Visual Studio 2022

Before we create a console application in Visual Studio, we will understand these 3 methods to read user input and show output on the console:

Console.ReadLine() – This method is used to read the text as a string from console windows. This will read input text from the user at console windows and display string at console windows when the user presses the enter key.

Console.Write() – write the text at console windows in the same line.

Console.WriteLine() – Write the text at console windows and add a new line character at the end of the line.

Step 1: Open Visual Studio 2022 or 2019 and click on "Create new project"

Step 2: Search for the "Console application" and select the first one, as shown below in the image and click "Next"

Step 3: Once you have clicked "Next", you need to enter project name and then click on "Next"

Step 4: Now once you click "Next", you need to select .NET Core version, I have selected .NET 6

then simply Click "Create" and let Visual Studio generate the console application template.

Once we have a template, now navigate to the Program.cs and use below code to create a program for addition or subtraction

using System;
class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        int num1 = 0;
        int num2 = 0;
        // Ask the user to type the first number.  
        Console.WriteLine("Enter a number");
        num1 = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine());

        // Ask the user to type the second number.  
        Console.WriteLine("Enter Second number");
        num2 = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine());

        // Ask the user to choose an option.  
        Console.WriteLine("Select Operation:");
        Console.WriteLine("1 - Add");
        Console.WriteLine("2 - Subtract");

        // Use a switch statement to do the math.
        switch (Console.ReadLine())
        {
            case "1":
                Console.WriteLine("Your result: " + num1+ " + "+num2 +" = "+ (num1 + num2));
                break;
            case "2":
                Console.WriteLine("Your result: "+ num1+ " - "+num2 + " = " + (num1 - num2));
                break;
        }
      
    }
}

Once you are done, you can click on F5 to build and run the project.

You will see output like below:

Enter a number
5
Enter Second number
5
Select Operation:
1 - Add
2 - Subtract
1
Your result: 5 + 5 = 10

In the above code, we have asked the user to add 2 numbers 1 by 1.

Then We ask the user to select any 1 operation, addition, or subtraction.

Once the option is selected we are using Switch case to select the correct user option and print output by adding or subtracting numbers.

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