Question

I’ve got the following code:

bool loop = true;
        LongbowWorkerThread Worker = new LongbowWorkerThread();
        Thread w = new Thread(Worker.UpdateChannel);
        w.Start();

        string inText = string.Empty;

        while (loop) {
            inText = Console.ReadLine();
            Console.WriteLine(inText);
        }

At this point, the worker thread simply echoes a string every 5000ms. The problem is that the printed string overlaps the user’s already-entered text, which isn’t ideal and looks quite ugly (although it doesn’t affect the actual data returned by Console.ReadLine.)

Is there a way to prevent this overlap?

Answer 1

You could use the Console.CursorLeft and Console.CursorRight properties to note the cursors location, shift it, output your text, then shift it back.

Edit: Here’s a sample I just threw together, works well based on the 60 seconds of testing I threw at it.

        int fooCursorTop = Console.CursorTop + 1;

        var timer2 = new System.Timers.Timer(1000);
        timer2.Elapsed += new System.Timers.ElapsedEventHandler(delegate
            {
                int tempCursorLeft = Console.CursorLeft;
                int tempCursorTop = Console.CursorTop;
                Console.CursorLeft = 0;
                Console.CursorTop = fooCursorTop;
                Console.WriteLine("Foo");
                Console.CursorLeft = tempCursorLeft;
                Console.CursorTop = tempCursorTop;
                fooCursorTop++;
            });
        timer2.Start();

        string input = string.Empty;
        while (input != "quit")
        {
            input = Console.ReadLine();
            Console.CursorTop = fooCursorTop;
            Console.WriteLine(input);
            fooCursorTop += 2;
        }