My.Application.CommandLineArgs Property

Article
11/18/2006

Gets a collection containing the command-line arguments as strings for the current application.

' Usage
Dim value As System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection(Of String) = My.Application.CommandLineArgs
' Declaration
Public ReadOnly Property CommandLineArgs As System.Collections.ObjectModel.ReadOnlyCollection(Of String)

Return Value

A ReadOnlyCollection of String, containing the command-line arguments as strings for the current application.

Remarks

The My.Application.CommandLineArgs property provides read-only access to the current application's command-line arguments for applications that are not ClickOnce deployed.

For a single-instance application, the My.Application.CommandLineArgs property returns the command-line arguments for the first instance of an application. To access the arguments for subsequent attempts to start a single-instance application, you must handle the My.Application.StartupNextInstance Event and examine the CommandLine property of the StartupEventArgs argument.

Note

The My.Application.CommandLineArgs property returns only the command-line arguments. This is different from the behavior of the CommandLine property, which returns the application name in addition to the arguments.

Note

In an application that is ClickOnce deployed, use the ActivationUri property of the My.Application.Deployment object to get the command-line arguments. For more information, see My.Application.Deployment Property.

Tasks

The following table lists examples of tasks involving the My.Application.CommandLineArgs property.

To	See
Check if the application started with the string `/batch` as an argument	How to: Enable a Batch Mode for Window Forms Applications
Check the command-line arguments of subsequent attempts to start a single-instance application	My.Application.StartupNextInstance Event

Example

This example uses the My.Application.CommandLineArgs property to examine the application's command-line arguments. If an argument is found that starts with /input=, the rest of that argument is displayed.

Private Sub ParseCommandLineArgs()
    Dim inputArgument As String = "/input="
    Dim inputName As String = ""

    For Each s As String In My.Application.CommandLineArgs
        If s.ToLower.StartsWith(inputArgument) Then
            inputName = s.Remove(0, inputArgument.Length)
        End If
    Next

    If inputName = "" Then
        MsgBox("No input name")
    Else
        MsgBox("Input name: " & inputName)
    End If
End Sub

Requirements

Namespace: Microsoft.VisualBasic.ApplicationServices

Class: ConsoleApplicationBase

Assembly: Visual Basic Runtime Library (in Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll)

Availability by Project Type

Project type	Available
Windows Application	Yes
Class Library	No
Console Application	Yes
Windows Control Library	No
Web Control Library	No
Windows Service	Yes
Web Site	No

Permissions

The following permission may be necessary:

Permission	Description
EnvironmentPermission	Controls the ability to access the PATH environment variable. Associated enumeration: Read.

For more information, see Code Access Security and Requesting Permissions.

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