How to add a Timeout to Console.ReadLine()?

Question

I have a console app in which I want to give the user x seconds to respond to the prompt. If no input is made after a certain period of time, program logic should continue. We assume a timeout means empty response.

What is the most straightforward way of approaching this?

Answer 1

I can't comment on Gulzar's post unfortunately, but here's a fuller example:

            while (Console.KeyAvailable == false)
            {
                Thread.Sleep(250);
                i++;
                if (i > 3)
                    throw new Exception("Timedout waiting for input.");
            }
            input = Console.ReadLine();

Answer 2

Simple threading example to solve this

Thread readKeyThread = new Thread(ReadKeyMethod);
static ConsoleKeyInfo cki = null;

void Main()
{
    readKeyThread.Start();
    bool keyEntered = false;
    for(int ii = 0; ii < 10; ii++)
    {
        Thread.Sleep(1000);
        if(readKeyThread.ThreadState == ThreadState.Stopped)
            keyEntered = true;
    }
    if(keyEntered)
    { //do your stuff for a key entered
    }
}

void ReadKeyMethod()
{
    cki = Console.ReadKey();
}

or a static string up top for getting an entire line.

Answer 3

Here is a solution that uses Console.KeyAvailable. These are blocking calls, but it should be fairly trivial to call them asynchronously via the TPL if desired. I used the standard cancellation mechanisms to make it easy to wire in with the Task Asynchronous Pattern and all that good stuff.

public static class ConsoleEx
{
  public static string ReadLine(TimeSpan timeout)
  {
    var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
    return ReadLine(timeout, cts.Token);
  }

  public static string ReadLine(TimeSpan timeout, CancellationToken cancellation)
  {
    string line = "";
    DateTime latest = DateTime.UtcNow.Add(timeout);
    do
    {
        cancellation.ThrowIfCancellationRequested();
        if (Console.KeyAvailable)
        {
            ConsoleKeyInfo cki = Console.ReadKey();
            if (cki.Key == ConsoleKey.Enter)
            {
                return line;
            }
            else
            {
                line += cki.KeyChar;
            }
        }
        Thread.Sleep(1);
    }
    while (DateTime.UtcNow < latest);
    return null;
  }
}

There are some disadvantages with this.

• You do not get the standard navigation features that ReadLine provides (up/down arrow scrolling, etc.).
• This injects '\0' characters into input if a special key is press (F1, PrtScn, etc.). You could easily filter them out by modifying the code though.

Answer 4

Im my case this work fine:

public static ManualResetEvent evtToWait = new ManualResetEvent(false);

private static void ReadDataFromConsole( object state )
{
    Console.WriteLine("Enter \"x\" to exit or wait for 5 seconds.");

    while (Console.ReadKey().KeyChar != 'x')
    {
        Console.Out.WriteLine("");
        Console.Out.WriteLine("Enter again!");
    }

    evtToWait.Set();
}

static void Main(string[] args)
{
        Thread status = new Thread(ReadDataFromConsole);
        status.Start();

        evtToWait = new ManualResetEvent(false);

        evtToWait.WaitOne(5000); // wait for evtToWait.Set() or timeOut

        status.Abort(); // exit anyway
        return;
}

Answer 5

A simple example using Console.KeyAvailable:

Console.WriteLine("Press any key during the next 2 seconds...");
Thread.Sleep(2000);
if (Console.KeyAvailable)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Key pressed");
}
else
{
    Console.WriteLine("You were too slow");
}

Answer 6

Please don't hate me for adding another solution to the plethora of existing answers! This works for Console.ReadKey(), but could easily be modified to work with ReadLine(), etc.

As the "Console.Read" methods are blocking, it's necessary to "nudge" the StdIn stream to cancel the read.

Calling syntax:

ConsoleKeyInfo keyInfo;
bool keyPressed = AsyncConsole.ReadKey(500, out keyInfo);
// where 500 is the timeout

Code:

public class AsyncConsole // not thread safe
{
    private static readonly Lazy<AsyncConsole> Instance =
        new Lazy<AsyncConsole>();

    private bool _keyPressed;
    private ConsoleKeyInfo _keyInfo;

    private bool DoReadKey(
        int millisecondsTimeout,
        out ConsoleKeyInfo keyInfo)
    {
        _keyPressed = false;
        _keyInfo = new ConsoleKeyInfo();

        Thread readKeyThread = new Thread(ReadKeyThread);
        readKeyThread.IsBackground = false;
        readKeyThread.Start();

        Thread.Sleep(millisecondsTimeout);

        if (readKeyThread.IsAlive)
        {
            try
            {
                IntPtr stdin = GetStdHandle(StdHandle.StdIn);
                CloseHandle(stdin);
                readKeyThread.Join();
            }
            catch { }
        }

        readKeyThread = null;

        keyInfo = _keyInfo;
        return _keyPressed;
    }

    private void ReadKeyThread()
    {
        try
        {
            _keyInfo = Console.ReadKey();
            _keyPressed = true;
        }
        catch (InvalidOperationException) { }
    }

    public static bool ReadKey(
        int millisecondsTimeout,
        out ConsoleKeyInfo keyInfo)
    {
        return Instance.Value.DoReadKey(millisecondsTimeout, out keyInfo);
    }

    private enum StdHandle { StdIn = -10, StdOut = -11, StdErr = -12 };

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern IntPtr GetStdHandle(StdHandle std);

    [DllImport("kernel32.dll")]
    private static extern bool CloseHandle(IntPtr hdl);
}