Bits & Bytes

This post explains how to create a simple console application in C# and make it print out a message. Console applications are the simplest applications. So, this is the perfect place to start if you have no prior knowledge of C#.

1. Navigate to the Start menu by left-clicking the Windows icon in the lower-left corner of your Desktop screen.
   
2. Then left-click the down arrow in the lower-left corner to go the Apps section and find the Visual Studio 2013 icon.
3. Left-click the Visual Studio 2013 icon to open the Visual Studio 2013 application.
   
4. Left-click FILE in the menubar, mouse over New in the submenu, and left-click Project in the submenu to open the New Project dialog.
   
5. Select Installed->Templates->Visual C#->Windows in the left-hand pane.
   
6. Then left-click Console Application in the center pane.
   
7. If you want to accept the default project name and location, left-click the OK button to finish creating the console application. Otherwise, you can first:
   1. Set the name of the project in the field next to “Name:” near the bottom of the dialog.
   2. Select a location by left-clicking the “Browse” button.
8. Now the project is created. To get the program to do something, add the line

   Console.WriteLine("God is Love!");

   to the code file “Program.cs” so that the final code looks like this:

   using System;
   using System.Collections.Generic;
   using System.Linq;
   using System.Text;
   
   namespace ConsoleApplication {
       class Program {
           static void Main(string[] args) {
               Console.WriteLine("God is Love!");
           }
       }
   }
   

9. To compile and run the program, left-click DEBUG in the menubar and left-click Start Without Debugging in the submenu.
   
10. When the program finishes compiling and runs, a console window should open like this one with the message “God is Love!” inside of it.