string pass = ""; Console. Write("Enter your password: "); ConsoleKeyInfo key; do { key = Console. ReadKey(true); // Backspace Should Not Work if (key.
ReadKey() Method makes the program wait for a key press and it prevents the screen until a key is pressed. In short, it obtains the next character or any key pressed by the user. The pressed key is displayed in the console window(if any input process will happen).
A console application is a computer program designed to be used via a text-only computer interface, such as a text terminal, the command-line interface of some operating systems (Unix, DOS, etc.) or the text-based interface included with most graphical user interface (GUI) operating systems, such as the Windows Console ...
Console.Write("\b \b");
will delete the asterisk character from the screen, but you do not have any code within your else
block that removes the previously entered character from your pass
string variable.
Here's the relevant working code that should do what you require:
var pass = string.Empty;
ConsoleKey key;
do
{
var keyInfo = Console.ReadKey(intercept: true);
key = keyInfo.Key;
if (key == ConsoleKey.Backspace && pass.Length > 0)
{
Console.Write("\b \b");
pass = pass[0..^1];
}
else if (!char.IsControl(keyInfo.KeyChar))
{
Console.Write("*");
pass += keyInfo.KeyChar;
}
} while (key != ConsoleKey.Enter);
For this you should use the System.Security.SecureString
public SecureString GetPassword()
{
var pwd = new SecureString();
while (true)
{
ConsoleKeyInfo i = Console.ReadKey(true);
if (i.Key == ConsoleKey.Enter)
{
break;
}
else if (i.Key == ConsoleKey.Backspace)
{
if (pwd.Length > 0)
{
pwd.RemoveAt(pwd.Length - 1);
Console.Write("\b \b");
}
}
else if (i.KeyChar != '\u0000' ) // KeyChar == '\u0000' if the key pressed does not correspond to a printable character, e.g. F1, Pause-Break, etc
{
pwd.AppendChar(i.KeyChar);
Console.Write("*");
}
}
return pwd;
}
Complete solution, vanilla C# .net 3.5+
Cut & Paste :)
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
namespace ConsoleReadPasswords
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
Console.Write("Password:");
string password = Orb.App.Console.ReadPassword();
Console.WriteLine("Sorry - I just can't keep a secret!");
Console.WriteLine("Your password was:\n<Password>{0}</Password>", password);
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
}
namespace Orb.App
{
/// <summary>
/// Adds some nice help to the console. Static extension methods don't exist (probably for a good reason) so the next best thing is congruent naming.
/// </summary>
static public class Console
{
/// <summary>
/// Like System.Console.ReadLine(), only with a mask.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="mask">a <c>char</c> representing your choice of console mask</param>
/// <returns>the string the user typed in </returns>
public static string ReadPassword(char mask)
{
const int ENTER = 13, BACKSP = 8, CTRLBACKSP = 127;
int[] FILTERED = { 0, 27, 9, 10 /*, 32 space, if you care */ }; // const
var pass = new Stack<char>();
char chr = (char)0;
while ((chr = System.Console.ReadKey(true).KeyChar) != ENTER)
{
if (chr == BACKSP)
{
if (pass.Count > 0)
{
System.Console.Write("\b \b");
pass.Pop();
}
}
else if (chr == CTRLBACKSP)
{
while (pass.Count > 0)
{
System.Console.Write("\b \b");
pass.Pop();
}
}
else if (FILTERED.Count(x => chr == x) > 0) { }
else
{
pass.Push((char)chr);
System.Console.Write(mask);
}
}
System.Console.WriteLine();
return new string(pass.Reverse().ToArray());
}
/// <summary>
/// Like System.Console.ReadLine(), only with a mask.
/// </summary>
/// <returns>the string the user typed in </returns>
public static string ReadPassword()
{
return Orb.App.Console.ReadPassword('*');
}
}
}
Taking the top answer, as well as the suggestions from its comments, and modifying it to use SecureString instead of String, test for all control keys, and not error or write an extra "*" to the screen when the password length is 0, my solution is:
public static SecureString getPasswordFromConsole(String displayMessage) {
SecureString pass = new SecureString();
Console.Write(displayMessage);
ConsoleKeyInfo key;
do {
key = Console.ReadKey(true);
// Backspace Should Not Work
if (!char.IsControl(key.KeyChar)) {
pass.AppendChar(key.KeyChar);
Console.Write("*");
} else {
if (key.Key == ConsoleKey.Backspace && pass.Length > 0) {
pass.RemoveAt(pass.Length - 1);
Console.Write("\b \b");
}
}
}
// Stops Receving Keys Once Enter is Pressed
while (key.Key != ConsoleKey.Enter);
return pass;
}
Mine ignores control characters and handles line wrapping:
public static string ReadLineMasked(char mask = '*')
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
ConsoleKeyInfo keyInfo;
while ((keyInfo = Console.ReadKey(true)).Key != ConsoleKey.Enter)
{
if (!char.IsControl(keyInfo.KeyChar))
{
sb.Append(keyInfo.KeyChar);
Console.Write(mask);
}
else if (keyInfo.Key == ConsoleKey.Backspace && sb.Length > 0)
{
sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1);
if (Console.CursorLeft == 0)
{
Console.SetCursorPosition(Console.BufferWidth - 1, Console.CursorTop - 1);
Console.Write(' ');
Console.SetCursorPosition(Console.BufferWidth - 1, Console.CursorTop - 1);
}
else Console.Write("\b \b");
}
}
Console.WriteLine();
return sb.ToString();
}
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