Navigation for dotNetTips.com - Retrieving Command Line Parameters

Getting command line parameters or seeing if they are present is not as easy as you would think. I whipped up some code to make this flexible and easy.

   Private Const ParameterPrefix As Char = "/"c
       
   Private Function GetCommandLineArgument(ByVal parameter As String) As String
      Dim paramValue = String.Empty

      For Each tempValue As String In System.Environment.GetCommandLineArgs
         If tempValue.Contains(ParameterPrefix + parameter + "=") Then
            paramValue = tempValue.Split(Char.Parse("="))(1).ToString().Trim()
            Exit For
         End If
      Next

      Return paramValue

   End Function

   Private Function CommandLineArgumentExists(ByVal parameter As String) As Boolean
      Dim exists = False

      For Each tempValue As String In System.Environment.GetCommandLineArgs
         If tempValue.Contains(ParameterPrefix + parameter) Then
            exists = True
            Exit For
         End If
      Next

      Return exists

   End Function

   Private Function GetCommandLineArgument(ByVal parameter As String, ByVal prefix As String) As String
      Dim paramValue = String.Empty

      For Each tempValue As String In System.Environment.GetCommandLineArgs
         If tempValue.Contains(prefix + parameter + "=") Then
            paramValue = tempValue.Split(Char.Parse("="))(1).ToString().Trim()
            Exit For
         End If
      Next

      Return paramValue

   End Function

   Private Function CommandLineArgumentExists(ByVal parameter As String, ByVal prefix As String) As Boolean
      Dim exists = False

      For Each tempValue As String In System.Environment.GetCommandLineArgs
         If tempValue.Contains(prefix + parameter) Then
            exists = True
            Exit For
         End If
      Next

      Return exists

   End Function

Usage:

 Debug.WriteLine(CommandLineArgumentExists("source"))
 Debug.WriteLine(GetCommandLineArgument("source", "-"))

Tip Submitted By: David McCarter