There are five ways to output text to the console:
Dim StdOut : Set StdOut = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject").GetStandardStream(1)
WScript.Echo "Hello"
WScript.StdOut.Write "Hello"
WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "Hello"
Stdout.WriteLine "Hello"
Stdout.Write "Hello"
WScript.Echo will output to console but only if the script is started using cscript.exe. It will output to message boxes if started using wscript.exe.
WScript.StdOut.Write and WScript.StdOut.WriteLine will always output to console.
StdOut.Write and StdOut.WriteLine will also always output to console. It requires extra object creation but it is about 10% faster than WScript.Echo.
You only need to force cscript instead wscript. I always use this template. The function ForceConsole() will execute your vbs into cscript, also you have nice alias to print and scan text.
Set oWSH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
vbsInterpreter = "cscript.exe"
Call ForceConsole()
Function printf(txt)
WScript.StdOut.WriteLine txt
End Function
Function printl(txt)
WScript.StdOut.Write txt
End Function
Function scanf()
scanf = LCase(WScript.StdIn.ReadLine)
End Function
Function wait(n)
WScript.Sleep Int(n * 1000)
End Function
Function ForceConsole()
If InStr(LCase(WScript.FullName), vbsInterpreter) = 0 Then
oWSH.Run vbsInterpreter & " //NoLogo " & Chr(34) & WScript.ScriptFullName & Chr(34)
WScript.Quit
End If
End Function
Function cls()
For i = 1 To 50
printf ""
Next
End Function
printf " _____ _ _ _____ _ _____ _ _ "
printf "| _ |_| |_ ___ ___| |_ _ _ _| | | __|___ ___|_|___| |_ "
printf "| | | '_| . | | --| | | | . | |__ | _| _| | . | _|"
printf "|__|__|_|_,_|___|_|_|_____|_____|___| |_____|___|_| |_| _|_| "
printf " |_| v1.0"
printl " Enter your name:"
MyVar = scanf
cls
printf "Your name is: " & MyVar
wait(5)
I came across this post and went back to an approach that I used some time ago which is similar to @MadAntrax's.
The main difference is that it uses a VBScript user-defined class to wrap all the logic for switching to CScript and outputting text to the console, so it makes the main script a bit cleaner.
This assumes that your objective is to stream output to the console, rather than having output go to message boxes.
The cCONSOLE class is below. To use it, include the complete class at the end of your script, and then instantiate it right at the beginning of the script. Here is an example:
Option Explicit
'// Instantiate the console object, this automatically switches to CSCript if required
Dim CONS: Set CONS = New cCONSOLE
'// Now we can use the Consol object to write to and read from the console
With CONS
'// Simply write a line
.print "CSCRIPT Console demo script"
'// Arguments are passed through correctly, if present
.Print "Arg count=" & wscript.arguments.count
'// List all the arguments on the console log
dim ix
for ix = 0 to wscript.arguments.count -1
.print "Arg(" & ix & ")=" & wscript.arguments(ix)
next
'// Prompt for some text from the user
dim sMsg : sMsg = .prompt( "Enter any text:" )
'// Write out the text in a box
.Box sMsg
'// Pause with the message "Hit enter to continue"
.Pause
End With
'= =========== End of script - the cCONSOLE class code follows here
Here is the code for the cCONSOLE class
CLASS cCONSOLE
'= =================================================================
'=
'= This class provides automatic switch to CScript and has methods
'= to write to and read from the CSCript console. It transparently
'= switches to CScript if the script has been started in WScript.
'=
'= =================================================================
Private oOUT
Private oIN
Private Sub Class_Initialize()
'= Run on creation of the cCONSOLE object, checks for cScript operation
'= Check to make sure we are running under CScript, if not restart
'= then run using CScript and terminate this instance.
dim oShell
set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
If InStr( LCase( WScript.FullName ), "cscript.exe" ) = 0 Then
'= Not running under CSCRIPT
'= Get the arguments on the command line and build an argument list
dim ArgList, IX
ArgList = ""
For IX = 0 to wscript.arguments.count - 1
'= Add the argument to the list, enclosing it in quotes
argList = argList & " """ & wscript.arguments.item(IX) & """"
next
'= Now restart with CScript and terminate this instance
oShell.Run "cscript.exe //NoLogo """ & WScript.ScriptName & """ " & arglist
WScript.Quit
End If
'= Running under CScript so OK to continue
set oShell = Nothing
'= Save references to stdout and stdin for use with Print, Read and Prompt
set oOUT = WScript.StdOut
set oIN = WScript.StdIn
'= Print out the startup box
StartBox
BoxLine Wscript.ScriptName
BoxLine "Started at " & Now()
EndBox
End Sub
'= Utility methods for writing a box to the console with text in it
Public Sub StartBox()
Print " " & String(73, "_")
Print " |" & Space(73) & "|"
End Sub
Public Sub BoxLine(sText)
Print Left(" |" & Centre( sText, 74) , 75) & "|"
End Sub
Public Sub EndBox()
Print " |" & String(73, "_") & "|"
Print ""
End Sub
Public Sub Box(sMsg)
StartBox
BoxLine sMsg
EndBox
End Sub
'= END OF Box utility methods
'= Utility to center given text padded out to a certain width of text
'= assuming font is monospaced
Public Function Centre(sText, nWidth)
dim iLen
iLen = len(sText)
'= Check for overflow
if ilen > nwidth then Centre = sText : exit Function
'= Calculate padding either side
iLen = ( nWidth - iLen ) / 2
'= Generate text with padding
Centre = left( space(iLen) & sText & space(ilen), nWidth )
End Function
'= Method to write a line of text to the console
Public Sub Print( sText )
oOUT.WriteLine sText
End Sub
'= Method to prompt user input from the console with a message
Public Function Prompt( sText )
oOUT.Write sText
Prompt = Read()
End Function
'= Method to read input from the console with no prompting
Public Function Read()
Read = oIN.ReadLine
End Function
'= Method to provide wait for n seconds
Public Sub Wait(nSeconds)
WScript.Sleep nSeconds * 1000
End Sub
'= Method to pause for user to continue
Public Sub Pause
Prompt "Hit enter to continue..."
End Sub
END CLASS
Create a .vbs with the following code, which will open your main .vbs:
Set objShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.shell")
objShell.Run "cscript.exe ""C:\QuickTestb.vbs"""
Here is my main .vbs
Option Explicit
Dim i
for i = 1 To 5
Wscript.Echo i
Wscript.Sleep 5000
Next
This was found on Dragon-IT Scripts and Code Repository.
You can do this with the following and stay away from the cscript/wscript differences and allows you to get the same console output that a batch file would have. This can help if your calling VBS from a batch file and need to make it look seamless.
Set fso = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set stdout = fso.GetStandardStream (1)
Set stderr = fso.GetStandardStream (2)
stdout.WriteLine "This will go to standard output."
stderr.WriteLine "This will go to error output."
Source: Stackoverflow.com