Multiple args in Console Application not parsing correctly

Question

Easy to reproduce but realy strange to me:

Add the following 'args' with 3 strings into the Command line arguments Textbox in VisualStudio (Under Project Properties->Debug->Start Options):

-SourceFile:"c:\temp\file.txt" -DestinationFolder:"c:\temp\" -ArchiveFolder:"C:\temp\"

Test it with this simple Console Application:

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        foreach (string t in args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(t);
        }
        Console.ReadKey();
    }
}

Result: the array (args[]) has 2 instead of 3 strings?

[0] SourceFile:c:\temp\file.txt
[1] DestinationFolder:c:\temp" -ArchiveFolder:C:\temp"

Can someone explain me why this happens? There is something strange with the quotes cause normaly, the quotes will be removed by .net, but here, there are still some quotes... but I can't see the problem...

Thanks for any help!

Answer 1

You have a \" in the DestinationFolder value, which "escapes" the quote, including it in the text of the value rather than it pairing with the opening quote to close the string. You want a literal, \, so use \\:

-SourceFile:"c:\temp\file.txt" -DestinationFolder:"c:\temp\\" -ArchiveFolder:"C:\temp\\"

(you can even see the escaping in action in SO's highlighting engine)