Reading an integer from user input

Question

What I am looking for is how to read an integer that was given by the user from the command line (console project). I primarily know C++ and have started down the C# path. I know that Console.ReadLine(); only takes a char/string. So in short I am looking for the integer version of this.

Just to give you an idea of what I'm doing exactly:

Console.WriteLine("1. Add account.");
Console.WriteLine("Enter choice: ");
Console.ReadLine(); // Needs to take in int rather than string or char.

I have been looking for quite a while for this. I have found a lot on C but not C#. I did find however a thread, on another site, that suggested to convert from char to int. I'm sure there has to be a more direct way than converting.

Answer 1

You can convert the string to integer using Convert.ToInt32() function

int intTemp = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine());

Answer 2

I didn't see a good and complete answer to your question, so I will show a more complete example. There are some methods posted showing how to get integer input from the user, but whenever you do this you usually also need to

1. validate the input
2. display an error message if invalid input is given, and
3. loop through until a valid input is given.

This example shows how to get an integer value from the user that is equal to or greater than 1. If invalid input is given, it will catch the error, display an error message, and request the user to try again for a correct input.

static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        int intUserInput = 0;
        bool validUserInput = false;

        while (validUserInput == false)
        {
            try
            { Console.Write("Please enter an integer value greater than or equal to 1: ");
              intUserInput = int.Parse(Console.ReadLine()); //try to parse the user input to an int variable
            }  
            catch (Exception) { } //catch exception for invalid input.

            if (intUserInput >= 1) //check to see that the user entered int >= 1
              { validUserInput = true; }
            else { Console.WriteLine("Invalid input. "); }

        }//end while

        Console.WriteLine("You entered " + intUserInput);
        Console.WriteLine("Press any key to exit ");
        Console.ReadKey();
    }//end main

In your question it looks like you wanted to use this for menu options. So if you wanted to get int input for choosing a menu option you could change the if statement to

if ( (intUserInput >= 1) && (intUserInput <= 4) )

This would work if you needed the user to pick an option of 1, 2, 3, or 4.

Answer 3

You need to typecast the input. try using the following

int input = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine()); 

It will throw exception if the value is non-numeric.

Edit

I understand that the above is a quick one. I would like to improve my answer:

String input = Console.ReadLine();
int selectedOption;
if(int.TryParse(input, out selectedOption))
{
      switch(selectedOption) 
      {
           case 1:
                 //your code here.
                 break;
           case 2:
                //another one.
                break;
           //. and so on, default..
      }

} 
else
{
     //print error indicating non-numeric input is unsupported or something more meaningful.
}

Answer 4

int op = 0;
string in = string.Empty;
do
{
    Console.WriteLine("enter choice");
    in = Console.ReadLine();
} while (!int.TryParse(in, out op));

Answer 5

You could just go ahead and try :

    Console.WriteLine("1. Add account.");
    Console.WriteLine("Enter choice: ");
    int choice=int.Parse(Console.ReadLine());

That should work for the case statement.

It works with the switch statement and doesn't throw an exception.