Listen for key press in .NET console app

Question

How can I continue to run my console application until a key press (like Esc is pressed?)

I\'m assuming its wrapped around a while loop. I don\'t like

Answer 1

Here is an approach for you to do something on a different thread and start listening to the key pressed in a different thread. And the Console will stop its processing when your actual process ends or the user terminates the process by pressing Esc key.

class SplitAnalyser
{
    public static bool stopProcessor = false;
    public static bool Terminate = false;

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Green;
        Console.WriteLine("Split Analyser starts");
        Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.Red;
        Console.WriteLine("Press Esc to quit.....");
        Thread MainThread = new Thread(new ThreadStart(startProcess));
        Thread ConsoleKeyListener = new Thread(new ThreadStart(ListerKeyBoardEvent));
        MainThread.Name = "Processor";
        ConsoleKeyListener.Name = "KeyListener";
        MainThread.Start();
        ConsoleKeyListener.Start();

        while (true) 
        {
            if (Terminate)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Terminating Process...");
                MainThread.Abort();
                ConsoleKeyListener.Abort();
                Thread.Sleep(2000);
                Thread.CurrentThread.Abort();
                return;
            }

            if (stopProcessor)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Ending Process...");
                MainThread.Abort();
                ConsoleKeyListener.Abort();
                Thread.Sleep(2000);
                Thread.CurrentThread.Abort();
                return;
            }
        } 
    }

    public static void ListerKeyBoardEvent()
    {
        do
        {
            if (Console.ReadKey(true).Key == ConsoleKey.Escape)
            {
                Terminate = true;
            }
        } while (true); 
    }

    public static void startProcess()
    {
        int i = 0;
        while (true)
        {
            if (!stopProcessor && !Terminate)
            {
                Console.ForegroundColor = ConsoleColor.White;
                Console.WriteLine("Processing...." + i++);
                Thread.Sleep(3000);
            }
            if(i==10)
                stopProcessor = true;

        }
    }

}