Setup dotnet development in Visual Studio, dotnet CLI and VS code

Install dotnet

• Download and install dotnet sdk from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/en-us/download
• Verify dotnet version with the command dotnet --version

Solution and Projects in dotnet

• Project is a C# application. It is defined by a .csproj file
• Solution is a collection of multiple projects. It is defined using a .sln file
• A simple C# solution folder structure can be as follows

ConsoleAppSolution
│   ConsoleAppSolution.sln
│
├───ConsoleApp1
│       ConsoleApp1.csproj
│       Program.cs
│
└───ConsoleApp2
        ConsoleApp2.csproj
        Program.cs

Development with Visual studio

• Download and install visual studio from https://visualstudio.microsoft.com/downloads/
• Open Visual studio and select “Create New Project”

• Select project type as “Console Application”

• Enter the solution name and project name

• Select the dotnet version

• Now a solution is created in visual studio as shown below

Development with dotnet CLI

• dotnet CLI (command line interface) is a part of dotnet SDK. It can be used to run dotnet commands
• A solution in dotnet (defined by .sln file) is a group of dotnet projects (defined by .csproj file)
• Create a new dotnet solution named “CSharpApps” using dotnet new sln -n CSharpApps
• Create a new dotnet console project named “HelloWorld” in a sub folder using dotnet new console -o HelloWorld
• Add the project to solution using dotnet sln add HelloWorld
• A folder structure like the following should be created

C:.
│   CSharpApps.sln
│
└───HelloWorld
        HelloWorld.csproj
        Program.cs

• Run the project using dotnet run --project HelloWorld

Development with VS code

• Download VS code from https://code.visualstudio.com/download
• Install the C# Dev Kit extension in VS code

• Open a folder in VS code
• Open command palette (Ctrl+Shift+P) and search “.NET New Project”

• Select the project type as Console App

• Enter the project name and proceed

• A solution and project named HelloWorld are created. A Visual studio like Solution Explorer will also be available.

Access command line arguments in entry file

• use args keyword to access command line arguments in the entry csharp file

Console.WriteLine("Hello, World!");
foreach (var s in args)
{
    Console.Write(s);
    Console.Write(' ');
}

Video

The video tutorial for this post can be found here

References

• dotnet cli docs - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/core/tools/