Is it possible to time a break from a program?

Question

I've been learning C# for 3 weeks now so still covering the basics.

My question:

At the end of a program (a simple currency converter, for example), when the user chooses to exit the program (rather than perform another calculation) is it possible to time a Console.Writeline to remain visible before a break?

Code:

 Console.WriteLine("Would you like to perform another conversion?");
 Console.WriteLine("");
 Console.WriteLine("y for YES");
 Console.WriteLine("e for EXIT");
 decision = Console.ReadLine();

 if (decision.Equals("E", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
 {

 Console.WriteLine("Thank-you for using CurrencyConverter");
 break;

 ...

//is it possible to have the writeline above hang around for a couple of seconds for readability before the program terminates?

Answer 1

Yes, absolutely: you can use System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(3000), where the argument is the delay in miliseconds.

Answer 2

I suggest you simply use Thread.Sleep(milliseconds) which is available once you add System.Threading to your usings. It is literally putting the thread which is currently taking care of your program into sleep.

PS: Break should not be in your if statement unless the code you have given is in a loop, because break is normally used to break out of loops at a certain point. If you are trying to exit from the program I suggest you rather use return;, if you are in the main method or by using Environment.Exit(0);

Answer 3

You can use the System.Threading.Sleep(int) function to specify the number of milliseconds to sleep for.

There are also some alternatives to causing the program to wait. For example, you can make the program wait until you are done reading the output.

One way to do that is to wait for console input with:

Console.ReadKey();

Or, if you use "Start Without Debugging" instead of "Start Debugging", then the program will break automatically and wait for a key press before closing the command prompt window.