How do I start a program with arguments when debugging

Question

I want to debug a program in Visual Studio 2008  The problem is that it exits if it doesn t get arguments  This is from the main method   if  args    null    args Length    2    args 0  ToUpper   Trim       RM          Console WriteLine  RM must be executed by the RSM         Console WriteLine  Press any key to exit program           Console Read        Environment Exit -1       I don t want to comment it out and and then back in when compiling  How can I start the program with arguments when debugging  It is set as the StartUp Project

User · Answer

I came to this page because I have sensitive information in my command line parameters, and didn't want them stored in the code repository. I was using System Environment variables to hold the values, which could be set on each build or development machine as needed for each purpose. Environment Variable Expansion works great in Shell Batch processes, but not Visual Studio.

Visual Studio Start Options:

However, Visual Studio wouldn't return the variable value, but the name of the variable.

Example of Issue:

My final solution after trying several here on S.O. was to write a quick lookup for the Environment variable in my Argument Processor. I added a check for % in the incoming variable value, and if it's found, lookup the Environment Variable and replace the value. This works in Visual Studio, and in my Build Environment.

foreach (string thisParameter in args)
            {
                if (thisParameter.Contains("="))
                {
                    string parameter = thisParameter.Substring(0, thisParameter.IndexOf("="));
                    string value = thisParameter.Substring(thisParameter.IndexOf("=") + 1);

                    if (value.Contains("%"))
                    {   //Workaround for VS not expanding variables in debug
                        value = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable(value.Replace("%", ""));
                    }

This allows me to use the same syntax in my sample batch files, and in debugging with Visual Studio. No account information or URLs saved in GIT.

Example Use in Batch

User · Answer

Go to Project- gt  lt Projectname gt  Properties  Then click on the Debug tab  and fill in your arguments in the textbox called Command line arguments

User · Answer

for  NET Core console apps you can do this 2 ways - from the launchsettings json or the properties menu  Launchsettings json  or right click the project  gt  properties  gt  debug tab on left see  quot Application Arguments  quot   this is  quot   quot   space  delimited  no need for any commas  just start typing  each space  quot   quot  will represent a new input parameter   whatever changes you make here will be reflected in the launchsettings json file

User · Answer

I would suggest using the directives like the following           static void Main string   args             if DEBUG             args   new      A      endif              Console WriteLine args 0                Good luck

User · Answer

For Visual Studio Code    Open launch json file Add args to your configuration        args     some argument    another one

User · Answer

My suggestion would be to use Unit Tests   In your application do the following switches in Program cs    if DEBUG     public class Program  else     class Program  endif   and the same for static Main string   args    Or alternatively use Friend Assemblies by adding    assembly  InternalsVisibleTo  TestAssembly      to your AssemblyInfo cs   Then create a unit test project and a test that looks a bit like so    TestClass  public class TestApplication        TestMethod      public void TestMyArgument                 using  var sw   new StringWriter                          Console SetOut sw      this makes any Console Writes etc go to sw              Program Main new      argument                   var result   sw ToString                 Assert AreEqual  expected   result                       This way you can  in an automated way  test multiple inputs of arguments without having to edit your code or change a menu setting every time you want to check something different

[c#] How do I start a program with arguments when debugging?

Examples related to c#

Examples related to visual-studio

Examples related to visual-studio-2008

Examples related to visual-studio-debugging