How do I pass command-line arguments to a WinForms application?

Question

The best way to work with args for your winforms app is to use

string[] args = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs();

You can probably couple this with the use of an enum to solidify the use of the array througout your code base.

"And you can use this anywhere in your application, you aren’t just restricted to using it in the main() method like in a console application."

Found at:HERE

static void Main(string[] args)
{
  // For the sake of this example, we're just printing the arguments to the console.
  for (int i = 0; i < args.Length; i++) {
    Console.WriteLine("args[{0}] == {1}", i, args[i]);
  }
}

The arguments will then be stored in the args string array:

$ AppB.exe firstArg secondArg thirdArg
args[0] == firstArg
args[1] == secondArg
args[2] == thirdArg

Consider you need to develop a program through which you need to pass two arguments. First of all, you need to open Program.cs class and add arguments in the Main method as like below and pass these arguments to the constructor of the Windows form.

static class Program
{    
   [STAThread]
   static void Main(string[] args)
   {            
       Application.EnableVisualStyles();
       Application.SetCompatibleTextRenderingDefault(false);
       Application.Run(new Form1(args[0], Convert.ToInt32(args[1])));           
   }
}

In windows form class, add a parameterized constructor which accepts the input values from Program class as like below.

public Form1(string s, int i)
{
    if (s != null && i > 0)
       MessageBox.Show(s + " " + i);
}

To test this, you can open command prompt and go to the location where this exe is placed. Give the file name then parmeter1 parameter2. For example, see below

C:\MyApplication>Yourexename p10 5

From the C# code above, it will prompt a Messagebox with value p10 5.

You can grab the command line of any .Net application by accessing the Environment.CommandLine property. It will have the command line as a single string but parsing out the data you are looking for shouldn't be terribly difficult.

Having an empty Main method will not affect this property or the ability of another program to add a command line parameter.

You use this signature: (in c#) static void Main(string[] args)

This article may help to explain the role of the main function in programming as well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_function_(programming)

Here is a little example for you:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        bool doSomething = false;

        if (args.Length > 0 && args[0].Equals("doSomething"))
            doSomething = true;

        if (doSomething) Console.WriteLine("Commandline parameter called");
    }
}