Output Console.Writeline from Wpf Windows Applications to Actual Console

Output Console.WriteLine from WPF Windows Applications to actual console

After digging up a bit, I found this answer. The code is now:

namespace WpfConsoleTest
{
    public partial class App : Application
    {
        [DllImport("Kernel32.dll")]
        public static extern bool AttachConsole(int processId);

        protected override void OnStartup(StartupEventArgs e)
        {
            AttachConsole(-1);
            Console.WriteLine("Start");
            System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(1000);
            Console.WriteLine("Stop");
            Shutdown(0);
        }
    }
}

Calling the exe directly still has a nasty side effect, connected with the call returning immediately:

C:\test>WpfConsoleTest.exe

C:\test>Start
Stop

^^^^
The cursor will stay here waiting for the user to press enter!

The solution is, once again, to use start:

C:\test>start /wait WpfConsoleTest.exe
Start
Stop

Thanks for input!

No output to console from a WPF application?

You'll have to create a Console window manually before you actually call any Console.Write methods. That will init the Console to work properly without changing the project type (which for WPF application won't work).

Here's a complete source code example, of how a ConsoleManager class might look like, and how it can be used to enable/disable the Console, independently of the project type.

With the following class, you just need to write ConsoleManager.Show() somewhere before any call to Console.Write...

[SuppressUnmanagedCodeSecurity]
public static class ConsoleManager
{
    private const string Kernel32_DllName = "kernel32.dll";

    [DllImport(Kernel32_DllName)]
    private static extern bool AllocConsole();

    [DllImport(Kernel32_DllName)]
    private static extern bool FreeConsole();

    [DllImport(Kernel32_DllName)]
    private static extern IntPtr GetConsoleWindow();

    [DllImport(Kernel32_DllName)]
    private static extern int GetConsoleOutputCP();

    public static bool HasConsole
    {
        get { return GetConsoleWindow() != IntPtr.Zero; }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Creates a new console instance if the process is not attached to a console already.
    /// </summary>
    public static void Show()
    {
        //#if DEBUG
        if (!HasConsole)
        {
            AllocConsole();
            InvalidateOutAndError();
        }
        //#endif
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// If the process has a console attached to it, it will be detached and no longer visible. Writing to the System.Console is still possible, but no output will be shown.
    /// </summary>
    public static void Hide()
    {
        //#if DEBUG
        if (HasConsole)
        {
            SetOutAndErrorNull();
            FreeConsole();
        }
        //#endif
    }

    public static void Toggle()
    {
        if (HasConsole)
        {
            Hide();
        }
        else
        {
            Show();
        }
    }

    static void InvalidateOutAndError()
    {
        Type type = typeof(System.Console);

        System.Reflection.FieldInfo _out = type.GetField("_out",
            System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic);

        System.Reflection.FieldInfo _error = type.GetField("_error",
            System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic);

        System.Reflection.MethodInfo _InitializeStdOutError = type.GetMethod("InitializeStdOutError",
            System.Reflection.BindingFlags.Static | System.Reflection.BindingFlags.NonPublic);

        Debug.Assert(_out != null);
        Debug.Assert(_error != null);

        Debug.Assert(_InitializeStdOutError != null);

        _out.SetValue(null, null);
        _error.SetValue(null, null);

        _InitializeStdOutError.Invoke(null, new object[] { true });
    }

    static void SetOutAndErrorNull()
    {
        Console.SetOut(TextWriter.Null);
        Console.SetError(TextWriter.Null);
    }
} 

Is it possible to have a WPF application print console output?

We have special class for this purpose:

internal static class ConsoleAllocator
{
    [DllImport(@"kernel32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
    static extern bool AllocConsole();

    [DllImport(@"kernel32.dll")]
    static extern IntPtr GetConsoleWindow();

    [DllImport(@"user32.dll")]
    static extern bool ShowWindow(IntPtr hWnd, int nCmdShow);

    const int SwHide = 0;
    const int SwShow = 5;

    public static void ShowConsoleWindow()
    {
        var handle = GetConsoleWindow();

        if (handle == IntPtr.Zero)
        {
            AllocConsole();
        }
        else
        {
            ShowWindow(handle, SwShow);
        }
    }

    public static void HideConsoleWindow()
    {
        var handle = GetConsoleWindow();

        ShowWindow(handle, SwHide);
    }
}

Just call ConsoleAllocator.ShowConsoleWindow() and then write to Console

WPF / Console Hybrid Application

Your best bet would be to abstract out the code that actually does the work to a separate class library that has no UI and then create two applications one Console, the other WPF that call this.

A console application and an WPF application have entirely different application models so you can't reuse the same code in both applications.

Having a separate class library allows you do other things like use it in other applications such as a web site or client/server architecture.

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