visual basic .NET get user input without pressing enter - vb.net

Question

I know of the existence of the code character = System.Console.ReadKey().tostring.
This will read one character.
Also in another stack overflow post I found:
Public Shared Function ReadPipedInfo() As StreamReader
'call with a default value of 5 milliseconds
Return ReadPipedInfo(5000)
End Function
Public Shared Function ReadPipedInfo(waitTimeInMilliseconds As Integer) As StreamReader
'allocate the class we're going to callback to
Dim callbackClass As New ReadPipedInfoCallback()
'to indicate read complete or timeout
Dim readCompleteEvent As New AutoResetEvent(False)
'open the StdIn so that we can read against it asynchronously
Dim stdIn As Stream = Console.OpenStandardInput()
'allocate a one-byte buffer, we're going to read off the stream one byte at a time
Dim singleByteBuffer As Byte() = New Byte(0) {}
'allocate a list of an arbitary size to store the read bytes
Dim byteStorage As New List(Of Byte)(4096)
Dim asyncRead As IAsyncResult = Nothing
Dim readLength As Integer = 0
'the bytes we have successfully read
Do
'perform the read and wait until it finishes, unless it's already finished
asyncRead = stdIn.BeginRead(singleByteBuffer, 0, singleByteBuffer.Length, New AsyncCallback(AddressOf callbackClass.ReadCallback), readCompleteEvent)
If Not asyncRead.CompletedSynchronously Then
readCompleteEvent.WaitOne(waitTimeInMilliseconds)
End If
'end the async call, one way or another
'if our read succeeded we store the byte we read
If asyncRead.IsCompleted Then
readLength = stdIn.EndRead(asyncRead)
'If readLength > 0 Then
byteStorage.Add(singleByteBuffer(0))
'End If
End If
Loop While asyncRead.IsCompleted AndAlso readLength > 0
'we keep reading until we fail or read nothing
'return results, if we read zero bytes the buffer will return empty
Return New StreamReader(New MemoryStream(byteStorage.ToArray(), 0, byteStorage.Count))
End Function
Private Class ReadPipedInfoCallback
Public Sub ReadCallback(asyncResult As IAsyncResult)
'pull the user-defined variable and strobe the event, the read finished successfully
Dim readCompleteEvent As AutoResetEvent = TryCast(asyncResult.AsyncState, AutoResetEvent)
readCompleteEvent.[Set]()
End Sub
End Class
which reads input if the user pressed enter
how could I make some code that reads (multiple) character(s) without letting the user press enter all the time? But instead use time as the indicator to stop reading the console?

Answer 1

You can use System.Console.Read() here. It reads as character from standard input stream. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.console.read(v=vs.110).aspx

Answer 2

According to here I found out how to deal with it:
Public Module ConsoleHelper
Sub Main()
msgbox(ReadKeyWithTimeOut(10000).key.ToString)
End Sub
Public Function ReadKeyWithTimeOut(timeOutMS As Integer) As ConsoleKeyInfo
Dim timeoutvalue As DateTime = DateTime.Now.AddMilliseconds(timeOutMS)
While DateTime.Now < timeoutvalue
If Console.KeyAvailable Then
Dim cki As ConsoleKeyInfo = Console.ReadKey()
Return cki
Else
System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)
End If
End While
Return New ConsoleKeyInfo(" "C, ConsoleKey.Spacebar, False, False, False)
End Function
End Module
Now just finding out how to give attribute key NULL or something if it timed out.