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Parsing Command Line Arguments

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26 Apr 2009CPOL2 min read 62K   496   83  
The CommandLineParser library provides a simple way to define command line arguments and parse them in your application.
For applications that have one or two arguments, you could probably manage with some switches and ifs, but when there are more arguments, you could use a CommandLineParser library and thus make your code cleaner and more elegant.
using System;
using CommandLineParser.Arguments;

namespace CommandLineParser.Exceptions
{
    /// <summary>
    /// General command line exception
    /// </summary>
    public class CommandLineException: Exception
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates new instance of CommandLineException.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="message">Exception message</param>
        public CommandLineException(string message) : base(message)
        {
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Creates new instance of CommandLineException.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="message">Exception message</param>
        /// <param name="innerException">The exception that is the cause of the 
        /// current exception, or a null reference (Nothing in Visual Basic) if no 
        /// inner exception is specified. </param>
        public CommandLineException(string message, Exception innerException)
            : base(message, innerException)
        {
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Thrown when command line arguments does not followgeneral rules for 
    /// command line arguments or rules specific for the particular argument type. 
    /// </summary>
    public class CommandLineFormatException: CommandLineException
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates new instance of CommandLineFormatException.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="message">Exception message</param>
        public CommandLineFormatException(string message):
            base(message)
        {
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Thrown when an argument is used in a wrong way
    /// </summary>
    public class CommandLineArgumentException: CommandLineException
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates new instance of CommandLineArgumentException.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="message">Exception message</param>
        /// <param name="argument">Name of the argument</param>
        public CommandLineArgumentException(string message, string argument) : base(message)
        {
            this.argument = argument;
        }

        private string argument;

        /// <summary>
        /// Argument used in a wrong way.
        /// </summary>
        public string Argument
        {
            get { return argument; }
            set { argument = value; }
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Thrown when an <see cref="Argument"/> with <see cref="Argument.Optional"/> field 
    /// set to false is not used on the parsed command line. 
    /// </summary>
    public class MandatoryArgumentNotSetException: CommandLineArgumentException
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates new instance of MandatoryArgumentNotSetException.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="message">Exception message</param>
        /// <param name="argument">Name of the argument</param>
        public MandatoryArgumentNotSetException(string message, string argument) : 
            base(message, argument)
        {
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Thrown when <see cref="ValueArgument{TValue}"/> value is not set on the parsed command line.
    /// </summary>
    public class MissingArgumentValueException: CommandLineArgumentException
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates new instance of MissingArgumentValueException.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="message">Exception message</param>
        /// <param name="argument">Name of the argument</param>
        public MissingArgumentValueException(string message, string argument) : 
            base(message, argument)
        {
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Thrown when uknown argument is found on the command line
    /// </summary>
    public class UnknownArgumentException: CommandLineArgumentException
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates new instance of UnknownArgumentException.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="message">Exception message</param>
        /// <param name="argument">Name of the argument</param>
        public UnknownArgumentException(string message, string argument) : 
            base(message, argument)
        {
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Thrown when parser failed to converse string to arguments value
    /// </summary>
    public class InvalidConversionException: CommandLineArgumentException
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates new instance of InvalidConversionException.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="message">Exception message</param>
        /// <param name="argument">Name of the argument</param>
        public InvalidConversionException(string message, string argument) : base(message, argument)
        {
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Thrown when arguments value does not follow limitations defined by the argument.
    /// </summary>
    public class CommandLineArgumentOutOfRangeException: CommandLineArgumentException
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates new instance of CommandLineArgumentOutOfRangeException.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="message">Exception message</param>
        /// <param name="argument">Name of the argument</param>
        public CommandLineArgumentOutOfRangeException(string message, string argument)
            : base(message, argument)
        {
        }
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Thrown when argument defined group is not valid.
    /// </summary>
    public class InvalidArgumentGroupException: CommandLineException
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// Creates new instance of InvalidArgumentGroupException.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="message">reason of the exception</param>
        public InvalidArgumentGroupException(string message)
            : base(message)
        {
        }
    }
}

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License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Junior)
Czech Republic Czech Republic
I am a computer science student at Charles University in Prague. I work as a developer of CRM and informational systems.

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