Print ASCII line art characters in C# console application

Question

I would like to have a C# console application print the extended ASCII Codes from http://www.asciitable.com/. In particular I am looking at the line art characters: 169, 17

Answer 1

I don't know how to get ASCII to work but you can use Unicode, to some degree, if you want to. It does require that the console be set to a true type font.

Michael Kaplan's article 'Anyone who says the console can't do Unicode isn't as smart as they think they are' includes the code for this.

I couldn't get his code to work directly but this worked for me as long as I ran it from a True Type Font Console. The article includes how to set it.

using System;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
namespace TestUnicode

{
    class Program
{



public static void Main(string[] args) {
    string st = "\u0169\u0129\n\n";
    IntPtr stdout = GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE);
    uint written;
    WriteConsoleW(stdout, st, st.Length, out written, IntPtr.Zero);
}


[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Unicode, ExactSpelling = true)]
internal static extern bool WriteConsoleW(IntPtr hConsoleOutput,
                                          string lpBuffer,
                                          int nNumberOfCharsToWrite,
                                          out uint lpNumberOfCharsWritten,
                                          IntPtr lpReserved);


internal static bool IsConsoleFontTrueType(IntPtr std) {
 CONSOLE_FONT_INFO_EX cfie = new CONSOLE_FONT_INFO_EX();
    cfie.cbSize = (uint)Marshal.SizeOf(cfie);
    if(GetCurrentConsoleFont(std, false, ref cfie)) {
        return(((cfie.FontFamily & TMPF_TRUETYPE) == TMPF_TRUETYPE));
    }
    return false;
}



[DllImport("Kernel32.DLL", ExactSpelling = true)]
internal static extern IntPtr GetStdHandle(int nStdHandle);


[DllImport("kernel32.dll", CharSet = CharSet.Auto, SetLastError = true)]
internal static extern bool GetCurrentConsoleFont(IntPtr hConsoleOutput,
                                                    bool bMaximumWindow, 
                                                    ref CONSOLE_FONT_INFO_EX lpConsoleCurrentFontEx);



internal struct COORD {
    internal short X;
    internal short Y;
    internal COORD(short x, short y) {
        X = x;
        Y = y;
    }
}

[StructLayout(LayoutKind.Sequential)]
internal unsafe struct CONSOLE_FONT_INFO_EX {
    internal uint cbSize;
    internal uint nFont;
    internal COORD dwFontSize;
    internal int FontFamily;
    internal int FontWeight;
    fixed char FaceName[LF_FACESIZE];
}

internal const int TMPF_TRUETYPE = 0x4;
internal const int LF_FACESIZE = 32;
internal const string BOM = "\uFEFF";
internal const int STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE = -11; // Handle to the standard output device.
internal const int ERROR_INVALID_HANDLE = 6;
internal const int ERROR_SUCCESS = 0;
internal const uint FILE_TYPE_UNKNOWN = 0x0000;
internal const uint FILE_TYPE_DISK = 0x0001;
internal const uint FILE_TYPE_CHAR = 0x0002;
internal const uint FILE_TYPE_PIPE = 0x0003;
internal const uint FILE_TYPE_REMOTE = 0x8000;
internal static IntPtr INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = new IntPtr(-1);
}
    }