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c#consoleansi-escapetext-decorations

adding text decorations to console output

I have a c# .net 3.5 application that writes text to the console using a StreamWriter. Is there a way I can add text decorations like underline and strikethrough to the text that is printed to the console? Possibly using ANSI escape sequences?

TextWriter writer = new StreamWriter(Console.OpenStandardOutput());
writer.WriteLine("some underlined text");

Thanks, PaulH

Solution

  • The Windows console does not support ANSI escape sequences. To my knowledge, the only way to change the attributes of an output character is to call SetConsoleTextAttribute before writing the character. Or, in .NET, modify the Console.ForegroundColor or Console.BackgroundColor attributes.

    It might be possible to set those properties to custom values (i.e. values not defined by ConsoleColor) with a type cast. But I don't know what good that would do you.

    I don't know that I've ever seen strikethrough text on a Windows console, and it's been years since I saw underline. I suppose it's possible, but I don't know how it's done.