SerialPort.GetPortNames Method

Definition

Gets an array of serial port names for the current computer.

C#
public static string[] GetPortNames();

Returns

String[]

An array of serial port names for the current computer.

Exceptions

The serial port names could not be queried.

Examples

The following code example uses the GetPortNames method to display serial port names to the console.

C#
using System;
using System.IO.Ports;

namespace SerialPortExample
{
    class SerialPortExample
    {
        public static void Main()
        {
            // Get a list of serial port names.
            string[] ports = SerialPort.GetPortNames();

            Console.WriteLine("The following serial ports were found:");

            // Display each port name to the console.
            foreach(string port in ports)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(port);
            }

            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Remarks

The order of port names returned from GetPortNames is not specified.

Use the GetPortNames method to query the current computer for a list of valid serial port names. For example, you can use this method to determine whether COM1 and COM2 are valid serial ports for the current computer.

The port names are obtained from the system registry (for example, HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\HARDWARE\DEVICEMAP\SERIALCOMM). If the registry contains stale or otherwise incorrect data then the GetPortNames method will return incorrect data.

Applies to

Product Versions
.NET 8 (package-provided), 9 (package-provided)
.NET Framework 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5, 4.5.1, 4.5.2, 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.6.2, 4.7 (package-provided), 4.7, 4.7.1 (package-provided), 4.7.1, 4.7.2 (package-provided), 4.7.2, 4.8 (package-provided), 4.8, 4.8.1
.NET Standard 2.0 (package-provided)