How can I update the current line in a C# Windows Console App?

Question

When building a Windows Console App in C#, is it possible to write to the console without having to extend a current line or go to a new line? For example, if I want to sho

Answer 1

I just had to play with the divo's ConsoleSpinner class. Mine is nowhere near as concise, but it just didn't sit well with me that users of that class have to write their own while(true) loop. I'm shooting for an experience more like this:

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Console.Write("Working....");
    ConsoleSpinner spin = new ConsoleSpinner();
    spin.Start();

    // Do some work...

    spin.Stop(); 
}

And I realized it with the code below. Since I don't want my Start() method to block, I don't want the user to have to worry about writing a while(spinFlag) -like loop, and I want to allow multiple spinners at the same time I had to spawn a separate thread to handle the spinning. And that means the code has to be a lot more complicated.

Also, I haven't done that much multi-threading so it's possible (likely even) that I've left a subtle bug or three in there. But it seems to work pretty well so far:

public class ConsoleSpinner : IDisposable
{       
    public ConsoleSpinner()
    {
        CursorLeft = Console.CursorLeft;
        CursorTop = Console.CursorTop;  
    }

    public ConsoleSpinner(bool start)
        : this()
    {
        if (start) Start();
    }

    public void Start()
    {
        // prevent two conflicting Start() calls ot the same instance
        lock (instanceLocker) 
        {
            if (!running )
            {
                running = true;
                turner = new Thread(Turn);
                turner.Start();
            }
        }
    }

    public void StartHere()
    {
        SetPosition();
        Start();
    }

    public void Stop()
    {
        lock (instanceLocker)
        {
            if (!running) return;

            running = false;
            if (! turner.Join(250))
                turner.Abort();
        }
    }

    public void SetPosition()
    {
        SetPosition(Console.CursorLeft, Console.CursorTop);
    }

    public void SetPosition(int left, int top)
    {
        bool wasRunning;
        //prevent other start/stops during move
        lock (instanceLocker)
        {
            wasRunning = running;
            Stop();

            CursorLeft = left;
            CursorTop = top;

            if (wasRunning) Start();
        } 
    }

    public bool IsSpinning { get { return running;} }

    /* ---  PRIVATE --- */

    private int counter=-1;
    private Thread turner; 
    private bool running = false;
    private int rate = 100;
    private int CursorLeft;
    private int CursorTop;
    private Object instanceLocker = new Object();
    private static Object console = new Object();

    private void Turn()
    {
        while (running)
        {
            counter++;

            // prevent two instances from overlapping cursor position updates
            // weird things can still happen if the main ui thread moves the cursor during an update and context switch
            lock (console)
            {                  
                int OldLeft = Console.CursorLeft;
                int OldTop = Console.CursorTop;
                Console.SetCursorPosition(CursorLeft, CursorTop);

                switch (counter)
                {
                    case 0: Console.Write("/"); break;
                    case 1: Console.Write("-"); break;
                    case 2: Console.Write("\\"); break;
                    case 3: Console.Write("|"); counter = -1; break;
                }
                Console.SetCursorPosition(OldLeft, OldTop);
            }

            Thread.Sleep(rate);
        }
        lock (console)
        {   // clean up
            int OldLeft = Console.CursorLeft;
            int OldTop = Console.CursorTop;
            Console.SetCursorPosition(CursorLeft, CursorTop);
            Console.Write(' ');
            Console.SetCursorPosition(OldLeft, OldTop);
        }
    }

    public void Dispose()
    {
        Stop();
    }
}