C# check if a COM (Serial) port is already open

Question

Is there an easy way of programmatically checking if a serial COM port is already open/being used?

Normally I would use:

try
{
    // open port
}
cat         


        

Answer 1

The SerialPort class has an Open method, which will throw a few exceptions. The reference above contains detailed examples.

See also, the IsOpen property.

A simple test:

using System;
using System.IO.Ports;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;

namespace SerPort1
{
class Program
{
    static private SerialPort MyPort;
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        MyPort = new SerialPort("COM1");
        OpenMyPort();
        Console.WriteLine("BaudRate {0}", MyPort.BaudRate);
        OpenMyPort();
        MyPort.Close();
        Console.ReadLine();
    }

    private static void OpenMyPort()
    {
        try
        {
            MyPort.Open();
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Error opening my port: {0}", ex.Message);
        }
    }
  }
}