vbscript output to console

Question

What is the command or the quickest way to output results to console using vbscript?

Answer 1

You mean:

Wscript.Echo "Like this?"

If you run that under wscript.exe (the default handler for the .vbs extension, so what you'll get if you double-click the script) you'll get a "MessageBox" dialog with your text in it. If you run that under cscript.exe you'll get output in your console window.

Answer 2

This was found on Dragon-IT Scripts and Code Repository.

You can do this with the following and stay away from the cscript/wscript differences and allows you to get the same console output that a batch file would have. This can help if your calling VBS from a batch file and need to make it look seamless.

Set fso = CreateObject ("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set stdout = fso.GetStandardStream (1)
Set stderr = fso.GetStandardStream (2)
stdout.WriteLine "This will go to standard output."
stderr.WriteLine "This will go to error output."

Answer 3

You only need to force cscript instead wscript. I always use this template. The function ForceConsole() will execute your vbs into cscript, also you have nice alias to print and scan text.

 Set oWSH = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
 vbsInterpreter = "cscript.exe"

 Call ForceConsole()

 Function printf(txt)
    WScript.StdOut.WriteLine txt
 End Function

 Function printl(txt)
    WScript.StdOut.Write txt
 End Function

 Function scanf()
    scanf = LCase(WScript.StdIn.ReadLine)
 End Function

 Function wait(n)
    WScript.Sleep Int(n * 1000)
 End Function

 Function ForceConsole()
    If InStr(LCase(WScript.FullName), vbsInterpreter) = 0 Then
        oWSH.Run vbsInterpreter & " //NoLogo " & Chr(34) & WScript.ScriptFullName & Chr(34)
        WScript.Quit
    End If
 End Function

 Function cls()
    For i = 1 To 50
        printf ""
    Next
 End Function

 printf " _____ _ _           _____         _    _____         _     _   "
 printf "|  _  |_| |_ ___ ___|     |_ _ _ _| |  |   __|___ ___|_|___| |_ "
 printf "|     | | '_| . |   |   --| | | | . |  |__   |  _|  _| | . |  _|"
 printf "|__|__|_|_,_|___|_|_|_____|_____|___|  |_____|___|_| |_|  _|_|  "
 printf "                                                       |_|     v1.0"
 printl " Enter your name:"
 MyVar = scanf
 cls
 printf "Your name is: " & MyVar
 wait(5)

Answer 4

There are five ways to output text to the console:

Dim StdOut : Set StdOut = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject").GetStandardStream(1)

WScript.Echo "Hello"
WScript.StdOut.Write "Hello"
WScript.StdOut.WriteLine "Hello"
Stdout.WriteLine "Hello"
Stdout.Write "Hello"

WScript.Echo will output to console but only if the script is started using cscript.exe. It will output to message boxes if started using wscript.exe.

WScript.StdOut.Write and WScript.StdOut.WriteLine will always output to console.

StdOut.Write and StdOut.WriteLine will also always output to console. It requires extra object creation but it is about 10% faster than WScript.Echo.