I want to write a program that will start another console utility (namely ping.exe) and stream in and analyze it's output. Is there any easy way to do this?

You can intercept console I/O by using the Process and ProcessStartInfo classes, and using the StreamReader from Process.StandardOutput:

[code]
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace PingIntercept
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Process proc = new Process();
            ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("ping.exe", "www.google.com");
            psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
            psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            psi.UseShellExecute = false;

            proc.StartInfo = psi;
            Console.WriteLine("Pinging www.google.com......");

            proc.Start();

            string result = proc.StandardOutput.ReadToEnd();
            proc.WaitForExit();

            Console.WriteLine(result);

            Console.WriteLine("Press <enter> to exit...");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}
[/code]

Output:

[code]
Pinging www.google.com......

Pinging www.l.google.com [66.102.7.99] with 32 bytes of data:

Reply from 66.102.7.99: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=245
Reply from 66.102.7.99: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=245
Reply from 66.102.7.99: bytes=32 time=43ms TTL=245
Reply from 66.102.7.99: bytes=32 time=42ms TTL=245

Ping statistics for 66.102.7.99:
    Packets: Sent = 4, Received = 4, Lost = 0 (0% loss),
Approximate round trip times in milli-seconds:
    Minimum = 42ms, Maximum = 43ms, Average = 42ms

Press <enter> to exit...
[/code]

You can also do line-by-line, for instance, by replacing ReadToEnd() with ReadLine() while the process is valid (try a while or do...while loop).

Go figure I'd fail at this. :p

[code]snipped[/code]

I've added debugging code to display when tmrUpdate_Tick starts and stops, and both of them print just fine. I'm looking to write a program that has a label to state the highest ping, lowest ping, etc. Anyhow, do you see what's wrong?

[hr]

I previously had [tt]cont = (s == null);[/tt which is the wrong value, and is now replaced with [tt]cont = !(s == null);[/tt]. The output messages that are supposed to show when the function begins and ends don't show at all now with this code:

[edit]I replaced that pile of mess with some sensible code that does the exact same thing, with the exact same result, but looks better. :)[/edit]

[code]using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Text;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.Diagnostics;

namespace PingAnalyzer
{
    public partial class Main : Form
    {

        private Process proc;

        public Main()
        {
            InitializeComponent();
        }

        private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            proc = new Process();
            ProcessStartInfo psi = new ProcessStartInfo("ping.exe", "-t www.google.com");
            psi.CreateNoWindow = true;
            psi.RedirectStandardOutput = true;
            psi.UseShellExecute = false;
            proc.StartInfo = psi;
            proc.Start();
            tmrUpdate.Enabled = true;
        }

        private void tmrUpdate_Tick(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            parse("Start" + Environment.NewLine);
            bool cont = true;
            while(cont)
            {
                String s = proc.StandardOutput.ReadLine();
                if (s == null)
                {
                    cont = false;
                }
                else
                {
                    parse(s);
                }
            }
            parse("Finish" + Environment.NewLine);
        }

        private void parse(String text)
        {
            richTextBox1.Text += text;
        }
    }
}[/code]

Alright, I fixed it. It's mega-messy now so if anyone cares enough, IM me and I'll zip it or whatever.