How to write to Console.Out during execution of an MSTest test

Question

The Console output is not appearing is because the backend code is not running in the context of the test.

You're probably better off using Trace.WriteLine (In System.Diagnostics) and then adding a trace listener which writes to a file.

This topic from MSDN shows a way of doing this.

---

According to Marty Neal's and Dave Anderson's comments:

using System;
using System.Diagnostics;

...

Trace.Listeners.Add(new TextWriterTraceListener(Console.Out));
// or Trace.Listeners.Add(new ConsoleTraceListener());
Trace.WriteLine("Hello World");

Use the Debug.WriteLine. This will display your message in the Output window immediately. The only restriction is that you must run your test in Debug mode.

[TestMethod]
public void TestMethod1()
{
    Debug.WriteLine("Time {0}", DateTime.Now);
    System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(30000);
    Debug.WriteLine("Time {0}", DateTime.Now);
}

Output

I found a solution of my own. I know that Andras answer is probably the most consistent with MSTEST, but I didn't feel like refactoring my code.

[TestMethod]
public void OneIsOne()
{
    using (ConsoleRedirector cr = new ConsoleRedirector())
    {
        Assert.IsFalse(cr.ToString().Contains("New text"));
        /* call some method that writes "New text" to stdout */
        Assert.IsTrue(cr.ToString().Contains("New text"));
    }
}

The disposable ConsoleRedirector is defined as:

internal class ConsoleRedirector : IDisposable
{
    private StringWriter _consoleOutput = new StringWriter();
    private TextWriter _originalConsoleOutput;
    public ConsoleRedirector()
    {
        this._originalConsoleOutput = Console.Out;
        Console.SetOut(_consoleOutput);
    }
    public void Dispose()
    {
        Console.SetOut(_originalConsoleOutput);
        Console.Write(this.ToString());
        this._consoleOutput.Dispose();
    }
    public override string ToString()
    {
        return this._consoleOutput.ToString();
    }
}

I had the same issue and I was "Running" the tests. If I instead "Debug" the tests the Debug output shows just fine like all others Trace and Console. I don't know though how to see the output if you "Run" the tests.