The ConsoleWriter is a class that writes formatted text to the Console.

ConsoleWriter.WriteLine("Welcome to my interactive command line tool!");

ConsoleWriter.Success("Config loaded");
ConsoleWriter.Warning("Minimum screen resolution of 320x240 not met");
ConsoleWriter.Error("Windows NT 4.0 is not supported");

Output:

Welcome to my interactive command line tool!
20:19:11 [+] Config loaded
20:19:11 [!] Minimum screen resolution of 320x240 not met
20:19:11 [-] Windows NT 4.0 is not supported

The Preview method displays a message that is erased from the console, after a successive write.

This helps to declutter console output, by erasing progress messages and only leaving success/failure messages on the screen.

ConsoleWriter.Preview("Loading file");
// Load file here
ConsoleWriter.Success("File loaded");

Output:

File loaded

(The initial message "Loading file" was erased)

To display a progress bar and erase it when done, use the Preview method with additional progress parameters:

for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
	ConsoleWriter.Preview("Loading file", i, $"Progress: {i} %");
	Thread.Sleep(10);
}

ConsoleWriter.Success("File loaded");

Output:

20:22:19 ... Loading file
64 % [████████████████████░░░░░░░░]

Write a question and input a string:

string name = ConsoleInput.Text("What's your name?");

Write a question and request a y or n from the user:

bool confirmed = ConsoleInput.Confirmation("Do you want to delete the file?");

Output:

Do you want to delete the file? [y/n]

If the defaultChoice parameter is true, [Y/n] is displayed (upper case Y). Pressing return confirms the question positively.

Likewise, false shows a [y/N] and pressing return confirms the question negatively.

To prompt for a selection, use the Select method.

int selection = ConsoleInput.Select(
	"Place your order, sir",
	"Pork",
	"Beef",
	"Veggie");

// selection == 1    -> Pork
// selection == 2    -> Beef
// selection == 3    -> Veggie

Output:

Place your order, sir
  [1] Pork
  [2] Beef
  [3] Veggie
Select: _

Change the ConsoleWriter.Theme property to configure Console output:

ConsoleWriter.Theme.ErrorStyle = new ConsoleStyle(ConsoleColor.Red, ConsoleColor.Black);
ConsoleWriter.Theme.SuccessIcon = "[+]";
ConsoleWriter.Theme.ErrorIcon = "[-]";

Change the ConsoleInput.Theme property to configure Console input:

ConsoleInput.Theme.ConfirmationAnswerNo = "n";
ConsoleInput.Theme.ConfirmationAnswerYes = "y";
ConsoleInput.Theme.SelectOptionsPromptText = "Select:";