How to draw a rectangle in console application?

Question

I need to draw a rectangle, with a number inside, in a C# console app and using extended ASCII. How do I go about it?

This is for a demo.

Answer 1

public class ConsoleRectangle
{
    private int hWidth;
    private int hHeight;
    private Point hLocation;
    private ConsoleColor hBorderColor;

    public ConsoleRectangle(int width, int height, Point location, ConsoleColor borderColor)
    {
        hWidth = width;
        hHeight = height;
        hLocation = location;
        hBorderColor = borderColor;
    }

    public Point Location
    {
        get { return hLocation; }
        set { hLocation = value; }
    }

    public int Width
    {
        get { return hWidth; }
        set { hWidth = value; }
    }

    public int Height
    {
        get { return hHeight; }
        set { hHeight = value; }
    }

    public ConsoleColor BorderColor
    {
        get { return hBorderColor; }
        set { hBorderColor = value; }
    }

    public void Draw()
    {
        string s = "╔";
        string space = "";
        string temp = "";
        for (int i = 0; i < Width; i++)
        {
            space += " ";
            s += "═";
        }

        for (int j = 0; j < Location.X ; j++)
            temp += " ";

        s += "╗" + "\n";

        for (int i = 0; i < Height; i++)
            s += temp + "║" + space + "║" + "\n";

        s += temp + "╚";
        for (int i = 0; i < Width; i++)
            s += "═";

        s += "╝" + "\n";

        Console.ForegroundColor = BorderColor;
        Console.CursorTop = hLocation.Y;
        Console.CursorLeft = hLocation.X;
        Console.Write(s);
        Console.ResetColor();
    }
}

Answer 2

Like this?

This worked for me:

Console.OutputEncoding = Encoding.GetEncoding(866);
Console.WriteLine("┌─┐");
Console.WriteLine("│1│");
Console.WriteLine("└─┘");

[EDIT]

Answer to the sub-question in the comment:

Console.OutputEncoding = Encoding.GetEncoding(866);
Console.WriteLine("  ┌─┐");
Console.WriteLine("  │1│");
Console.WriteLine("┌─┼─┘");
Console.WriteLine("│1│");
Console.WriteLine("└─┘");

Answer 3

This is an extension method to String, which will draw a console box around a given string. Multi-line support included.

i.e. string tmp = "some value"; Console.Write(tmp.DrawInConsoleBox());

        public static string DrawInConsoleBox(this string s)
        {
            string ulCorner = "╔";
            string llCorner = "╚";
            string urCorner = "╗";
            string lrCorner = "╝";
            string vertical = "║";
            string horizontal = "═";

            string[] lines = s.Split(new char[] { '\r', '\n' }, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);


            int longest = 0;
            foreach(string line in lines)
            {
                if (line.Length > longest)
                    longest = line.Length;
            }
            int width = longest + 2; // 1 space on each side


            string h = string.Empty;
            for (int i = 0; i < width; i++)
                h += horizontal;

            // box top
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            sb.AppendLine(ulCorner + h + urCorner);

            // box contents
            foreach (string line in lines)
            {
                double dblSpaces = (((double)width - (double)line.Length) / (double)2);
                int iSpaces = Convert.ToInt32(dblSpaces);

                if (dblSpaces > iSpaces) // not an even amount of chars
                {
                    iSpaces += 1; // round up to next whole number
                }

                string beginSpacing = "";
                string endSpacing = "";
                for (int i = 0; i < iSpaces; i++)
                {
                    beginSpacing += " ";

                    if (! (iSpaces > dblSpaces && i == iSpaces - 1)) // if there is an extra space somewhere, it should be in the beginning
                    {
                        endSpacing += " ";
                    }
                }
                // add the text line to the box
                sb.AppendLine(vertical + beginSpacing + line + endSpacing + vertical);
            }

            // box bottom
            sb.AppendLine(llCorner + h + lrCorner);

            // the finished box
            return sb.ToString();
        }

Answer 4

You can use CsConsoleFormat† to draw with ASCII border symbols in console.

Drawing a number within a rectangle with "double" lines:

ConsoleRenderer.RenderDocument(
    new Document()
        .AddChildren(
            new Border {
                    Stroke = LineThickness.Wide,
                    Align = HorizontalAlignment.Left
                }
                .AddChildren(1337)
        )
);

You can change Stroke = LineThickness.Wide line to change the style of lines. LineThickness.Single would produce thin single lines, new LineThickness(LineWidth.Single, LineWidth.Wide) would produce single vertical and double horizontal lines.

Here's what it looks like:

You can also use ConsoleBuffer class to draw lines explicitly (argument names added for clarity):

using static System.ConsoleColor;

var buffer = new ConsoleBuffer(width: 6);
buffer.DrawHorizontalLine(x: 0, y: 0, width: 6, color: White);
buffer.DrawHorizontalLine(x: 0, y: 2, width: 6, color: White);
buffer.DrawVerticalLine(x: 0, y: 0, height: 3, color: White);
buffer.DrawVerticalLine(x: 5, y: 0, height: 3, color: White);
buffer.DrawString(x: 1, y: 1, color: White, text: "1337");
new ConsoleRenderTarget().Render(buffer);

_{† CsConsoleFormat was developed by me.}