How to check if COM port exist before opening connection in Visual C#

c#, exists, port, serial-port, visual-studio

Solution

You should be doing two things. The first is checking `System.IO.Ports.SerialPort.GetPortNames()`. This will tell you if the port exists. Something like:

var portExists = SerialPort.GetPortNames().Any(x => x == "COM1");

You also need to catch exceptions when opening the port if it is already in use.

var port = new SerialPort("COM1");
try
{
    port.Open();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
    // Handle exception
}

Now you need to be careful and read http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.ports.serialport.open(v=vs.110).aspx for what exceptions can be thrown by `SerialPort.Open()` to make sure you handle each exception appropriately.

Problem

I need to check if selected COM port exist before conecting to it (It gives error) I'm using Visual Studio Express 2013 C#. Or, is there some way to hide that error? Thanks.. ~Richard

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