Display string value real time

Question

I'm writing a console program, and my code looks like this:

Configuration.cs

public static class Configuration
{
    public static string Message = "";
}

Menu.cs

class Menu
{
    public static void showMenu()
    {
        Console.Clear();
        Console.WriteLine("1: SOMETHING");
        Console.WriteLine("2: SOMETHING");
        Console.WriteLine("3: SOMETHING");
        Console.WriteLine("SYSTEM MSG: " + Configuration.Message);
        Console.Write("INPUT: ");
    }
}

Program.cs

...
static void Main(string[] args)
{
    ...
    int choice;

    while(true)
    {
        Menu.showMenu();
        choice = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine());

        switch(choice)
        {
            case 1:
            Configuration.Message = "HELLO!";
            break;

            case 2:
            Configuration.Message = "HI!";
            break;

            case 3:
            Configuration.Message = "WHAT?!";
            break;
        }
    }
}
...

For now, when I change Configuration.Message, it will display on the menu because the showMenu method clears the console and show the string again.

But what I want to make is without Clear method, I want to show Configuration.Message for real time. I was thinking that using Timer and refresh the menu every second, but it is not efficient (feels like cheating). How can I do this?

Answer 1

I would suggest that if functionality like this is necessary it would be better to look at a UI technology like WPF. But, that being said, maybe this would do what you wanted. Showing the menu each time you set the Message. I do not think when using the console there is a way to bind a variable to some message on the console.

    public static class Configuration
    {
        private static string _message;
        public static string Message 
        { 
            get
            {
                return _message;
            }
            set
            {
                _message = value;
                Menu.showMenu();
            }
        }
    }

Edit: to implement this using a property changed event you could do something like this. Note, I am not implementing INotifyPropertyChanged as to keep the static class.

class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Configuration.PropertyChanged += (sender, e) =>
            {
                Menu.showMenu();
            };
            int choice;

            while (true)
            {
                Menu.showMenu();
                choice = Convert.ToInt32(Console.ReadLine());

                switch (choice)
                {
                    case 1:
                        Configuration.Message = "HELLO!";
                        break;

                    case 2:
                        Configuration.Message = "HI!";
                        break;

                    case 3:
                        Configuration.Message = "WHAT?!";
                        break;
                }
            }
        }
    }

    class Menu
    {
        public static void showMenu()
        {
            Console.Clear();
            Console.WriteLine("1: SOMETHING");
            Console.WriteLine("2: SOMETHING");
            Console.WriteLine("3: SOMETHING");
            Console.WriteLine("SYSTEM MSG: " + Configuration.Message);
            Console.Write("INPUT: ");
        }
    }

    public static class Configuration 
    {
        public static event PropertyChangedEventHandler PropertyChanged;

        private static string _message;
        public static string Message
        {
            get
            {
                return _message;
            }
            set
            {
                if (value != _message)
                {
                    _message = value;
                    NotifyPropertyChanged(property: _message);
                }
            }
        }

        private static void NotifyPropertyChanged(object property, String propertyName = "")
        {
            if (PropertyChanged != null)
            {
                PropertyChanged(property, new PropertyChangedEventArgs(propertyName));
            }
        }
    }