why the following batch script is failing with "The syntax of the command is incorrect." error on Windows 7 if I provide no argument:
IF NOT [%1]==[] (
echo "blablabla" > %1
) ELSE (
echo "please provide argument"
)
But there is no problem with this code:
IF NOT [%1]==[] (
echo "blablabla"
) ELSE (
echo "printing not existing argument: %1"
)
Thanks in advance
Encapsulating the filename by double quotations enforces the if/else block to parse and read the expression correctly.
For example
IF NOT [%1]==[] (
echo "blablabla" > "%1"
) ELSE (
echo "please provide argument"
)
The problem is that the entire if/else block is read and parsed at once. So if %1 is empty, the redirection > is still parsed and evaluated invalid.
You can work around the issue like that:
if not "%~1"=="" (
goto :Redirect
) else (
echo please provide argument
)
goto :Continue
:Redirect
> "%~1" echo blablabla
:Continue
I replaced the brackets by quotation marks, because they protect white-spaces and other special characters. The ~-symbol ensures that the returned argument appears unquoted, so there is always one pair of quotes in the expression "%~1".
Moreover, I removed quotes from the echo command lines as they were output too, and I moved the redirection part > "%~1" in front of echo in order to avoid a trailing SPACE to be returned.
I need to parse a file that has the following format:
A + tags/RWSTestConsole_tag1/
(from trunk/RWSTestConsole/:r776)
So I'm using a FOR /F loop with a counter and inspecting the tokens based on whether I'm looking at line 1 or line 2. Everything works fine except the first token for line 2 includes the leading spaces (" from") and a) I thought the delims on my FOR would take care of spaces and b) theoretically I could just compare to a constant string that is set to " from" but that's kind of hokey.
This is my FOR command:
for /F "tokens=1,2,3,4,5 delims=():/ " %%a in (svn.txt) DO (
Is there a change I can make to the FOR command to ignore the spaces? If not is there a way to trim the token inside the FOR loop's DO clause so I only get the word without the leading spaces?
Edit:
This is output from a Subversion SVNLOOK command in a script that is managing whether or not to allow a "tag" to be created. The output can be 1 line that must be formatted as:
D /tags/tagfoldername/
If it's one line but it's not a delete for the actual tag folder then it's an error. This case is handled.
If it's more than 2 lines it's a list of files and that's an error. I have that handled.
The case I'm having problems with is if it is 2 lines it needs to be in the format shown above:
A + tags/RWSTestConsole_tag1/
(from trunk/RWSTestConsole/:r776)
Where col 1 = "A". col 3 = "+", col 5 = "tags" and the remainder of line one is the tag folder name. The second line is the source of the create request so it has to start with "from", followed by "trunk", "branches" or "tags" followed by a single-level folder name and a revision number.
I used the FOR command as described above. In the DO clause I look at a counter to tell if I'm parsing line 1 or line 2. Line 1 is simple, I have all the logic to handle it.
Line 2 is parsed by the same FOR command and the first token (%%a) removes the "{" from delims, but leaves behind all the leading blanks so I get back %%a=" from".
I need to know if there's a way I can modify the FOR command to remove the blanks or a way to trim %%a within the FOR DO clause to remove the blanks.
Edit 2: FOR Loop Code
set c=1
for /F "tokens=1,2,3,4,5 delims=():/ " %%a in (svn.txt) DO (
echo op=%%a, %%b, %%c, %%d, %%e
if !c!==1 (
set rc1=0
if /I %%a EQU A (
if "%%b" EQU "+" (
if [%%e] EQU [] (
echo Tag from a Copy Op
set rc1=0
) else (
echo Found a subfolder: %%e - not a tag delete
set rc1=1
)
) else (
echo Tag not a Copy
set rc1=1
)
)
)
if !c!==2 (
set rc2=0
set str1=%%a
echo String replace 1 = !str!
set str2=!str1:~-4!
echo String Replace 2 *!str2!*
if /I !str2! EQU FROM (
set isvalid=false
if %%b EQU trunk set isvalid=true
if %%b EQU branches set isvalid=true
if %%b EQU tags set isvalid=true
if !isvalid! EQU true (
set rc2=0
) else (
set rc2=1
echo Invalid source for Tag Creation
)
) else (
set rc2=1
echo Tag not FROM
)
)
set /a c+=1
)
echo RC1=!rc1!
echo RC2=!rc2!
set /a rc=!rc1!+!rc2!
echo final RC = !rc!
Is there a way to write an IF OR IF conditional statement in a windows batch-file?
For example:
IF [%var%] == [1] OR IF [%var%] == [2] ECHO TRUE
The zmbq solution is good, but cannot be used in all situations, such as inside a block of code like a FOR DO(...) loop.
An alternative is to use an indicator variable. Initialize it to be undefined, and then define it only if any one of the OR conditions is true. Then use IF DEFINED as a final test - no need to use delayed expansion.
FOR ..... DO (
set "TRUE="
IF cond1 set TRUE=1
IF cond2 set TRUE=1
IF defined TRUE (
...
) else (
...
)
)
You could add the ELSE IF logic that arasmussen uses on the grounds that it might perform a wee bit faster if the 1st condition is true, but I never bother.
Addendum - This is a duplicate question with nearly identical answers to Using an OR in an IF statement WinXP Batch Script
Final addendum - I almost forgot my favorite technique to test if a variable is any one of a list of case insensitive values. Initialize a test variable containing a delimitted list of acceptable values, and then use search and replace to test if your variable is within the list. This is very fast and uses minimal code for an arbitrarily long list. It does require delayed expansion (or else the CALL %%VAR%% trick). Also the test is CASE INSENSITIVE.
set "TEST=;val1;val2;val3;val4;val5;"
if "!TEST:;%VAR%;=!" neq "!TEST!" (echo true) else (echo false)
The above can fail if VAR contains =, so the test is not fool-proof.
If doing the test within a block where delayed expansion is needed to access current value of VAR then
for ... do (
set "TEST=;val1;val2;val3;val4;val5;"
for /f %%A in (";!VAR!;") do if "!TEST:%%A=!" neq "!TEST!" (echo true) else (echo false)
)
FOR options like "delims=" might be needed depending on expected values within VAR
The above strategy can be made reliable even with = in VAR by adding a bit more code.
set "TEST=;val1;val2;val3;val4;val5;"
if "!TEST:;%VAR%;=!" neq "!TEST!" if "!TEST:;%VAR%;=;%VAR%;"=="!TEST!" echo true
But now we have lost the ability of providing an ELSE clause unless we add an indicator variable. The code has begun to look a bit "ugly", but I think it is the best performing reliable method for testing if VAR is any one of an arbitrary number of case-insensitive options.
Finally there is a simpler version that I think is slightly slower because it must perform one IF for each value. Aacini provided this solution in a comment to the accepted answer in the before mentioned link
for %%A in ("val1" "val2" "val3" "val4" "val5") do if "%VAR%"==%%A echo true
The list of values cannot include the * or ? characters, and the values and %VAR% should not contain quotes. Quotes lead to problems if the %VAR% also contains spaces or special characters like ^, & etc. One other limitation with this solution is it does not provide the option for an ELSE clause unless you add an indicator variable. Advantages are it can be case sensitive or insensitive depending on presence or absence of IF /I option.
I don't think so. Just use two IFs and GOTO the same label:
IF cond1 GOTO foundit
IF cond2 GOTO foundit
ECHO Didn't find it
GOTO end
:foundit
ECHO Found it!
:end
A simple "FOR" can be used in a single line to use an "or" condition:
FOR %%a in (item1 item2 ...) DO IF {condition_involving_%%a} {execute_command}
Applied to your case:
FOR %%a in (1 2) DO IF %var%==%%a ECHO TRUE
Suppress executing twice
A comment pointed out that {execute_command} may be encountered twice. To avoid this, you can use a goto after the first encounter.
FOR %%a in (1 2) DO IF %var%==%%a (
ECHO TRUE
goto :continue
)
:continue
If you think there's a possibility that {execute_command} might be executed twice and you don't want that, you can just add && goto :eof:
FOR %%a in (1 2) DO IF %var%==%%a ECHO TRUE && goto :eof
Much simpler, and still on a single line.
Thanks for this post, it helped me a lot.
Dunno if it can help but I had the issue and thanks to you I found what I think is another way to solve it based on this boolean equivalence:
"A or B" is the same as "not(not A and not B)"
Thus:
IF [%var%] == [1] OR IF [%var%] == [2] ECHO TRUE
Becomes:
IF not [%var%] == [1] IF not [%var%] == [2] ECHO FALSE
Even if this question is a little older:
If you want to use if cond1 or cond 2 - you should not use complicated loops or stuff like that.
Simple provide both ifs after each other combined with goto - that's an implicit or.
//thats an implicit IF cond1 OR cond2 OR cond3
if cond1 GOTO doit
if cond2 GOTO doit
if cond3 GOTO doit
//thats our else.
GOTO end
:doit
echo "doing it"
:end
Without goto but an "inplace" action, you might execute the action 3 times, if ALL conditions are matching.
There is no IF <arg> OR or ELIF or ELSE IF in Batch, however...
Try nesting the other IF's inside the ELSE of the previous IF.
IF <arg> (
....
) ELSE (
IF <arg> (
......
) ELSE (
IF <arg> (
....
) ELSE (
)
)
The goal can be achieved by using IFs indirectly.
Below is an example of a complex expression that can be written quite concisely and logically in a CMD batch, without incoherent labels and GOTOs.
Code blocks between () brackets are handled by CMD as a (pathetic) kind of subshell. Whatever exit code comes out of a block will be used to determine the true/false value the block plays in a larger boolean expression. Arbitrarily large boolean expressions can be built with these code blocks.
Simple example
Each block is resolved to true (i.e. ERRORLEVEL = 0 after the last statement in the block has executed) / false, until the value of the whole expression has been determined or control jumps out (e.g. via GOTO):
((DIR c:\xsgdde /w) || (DIR c:\ /w)) && (ECHO -=BINGO=-)
Complex example
This solves the problem raised initially. Multiple statements are possible in each block but in the || || || expression it's preferable to be concise so that it's as readable as possible. ^ is an escape char in CMD batches and when placed at the end of a line it will escape the EOL and instruct CMD to continue reading the current batch of statements on the next line.
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
(
(CALL :ProcedureType1 a b) ^
|| (CALL :ProcedureType2 sgd) ^
|| (CALL :ProcedureType1 c c)
) ^
&& (
ECHO -=BINGO=-
GOTO :EOF
)
ECHO -=no bingo for you=-
GOTO :EOF
:ProcedureType1
IF "%~1" == "%~2" (EXIT /B 0) ELSE (EXIT /B 1)
GOTO :EOF (this line is decorative as it's never reached)
:ProcedureType2
ECHO :ax:xa:xx:aa:|FINDSTR /I /L /C:":%~1:">nul
GOTO :EOF
It's possible to use a function, which evaluates the OR logic and returns a single value.
#echo off
set var1=3
set var2=5
call :logic_or orResult "'%var1%'=='4'" "'%var2%'=='5'"
if %orResult%==1 (
echo At least one expression is true
) ELSE echo All expressions are false
exit /b
:logic_or <resultVar> expression1 [[expr2] ... expr-n]
SETLOCAL
set "logic_or.result=0"
set "logic_or.resultVar=%~1"
:logic_or_loop
if "%~2"=="" goto :logic_or_end
if %~2 set "logic_or.result=1"
SHIFT
goto :logic_or_loop
:logic_or_end
(
ENDLOCAL
set "%logic_or.resultVar%=%logic_or.result%"
exit /b
)
If %x%==1 (
If %y%==1 (
:: both are equal to 1.
)
)
That's for checking if multiple variables equal value. Here's for either variable.
If %x%==1 (
:: true
)
If %x%==0 (
If %y%==1 (
:: true
)
)
If %x%==0 (
If %y%==0 (
:: False
)
)
I just thought of that off the top if my head. I could compact it more.
I realize this question is old, but I wanted to post an alternate solution in case anyone else (like myself) found this thread while having the same question. I was able to work around the lack of an OR operator by echoing the variable and using findstr to validate.
for /f %%v in ('echo %var% ^| findstr /x /c:"1" /c:"2"') do (
if %errorlevel% equ 0 echo true
)
While dbenham's answer is pretty good, relying on IF DEFINED can get you in loads of trouble if the variable you're checking isn't an environment variable. Script variables don't get this special treatment.
While this might seem like some ludicrous undocumented BS, doing a simple shell query of IF with IF /? reveals that,
The DEFINED conditional works just like EXIST except it takes an
environment variable name and returns true if the environment variable
is defined.
In regards to answering this question, is there a reason to not just use a simple flag after a series of evaluations? That seems the most flexible OR check to me, both in regards to underlying logic and readability. For example:
Set Evaluated_True=false
IF %condition_1%==true (Set Evaluated_True=true)
IF %some_string%=="desired result" (Set Evaluated_True=true)
IF %set_numerical_variable% EQ %desired_numerical_value% (Set Evaluated_True=true)
IF %Evaluated_True%==true (echo This is where you do your passing logic) ELSE (echo This is where you do your failing logic)
Obviously, they can be any sort of conditional evaluation, but I'm just sharing a few examples.
If you wanted to have it all on one line, written-wise, you could just chain them together with && like:
Set Evaluated_True=false
IF %condition_1%==true (Set Evaluated_True=true) && IF %some_string%=="desired result" (Set Evaluated_True=true) && IF %set_numerical_variable% EQ %desired_numerical_value% (Set Evaluated_True=true)
IF %Evaluated_True%==true (echo This is where you do your passing logic) ELSE (echo This is where you do your failing logic)
Never got exist to work.
I use
if not exist g:xyz/what goto h:
Else xcopy c:current/files g:bu/current
There are modifiers /a etc. Not sure which ones. Laptop in shop. And computer in office. I am not there.
Never got batch files to work above Windows XP
A much faster alternative I usually use is as follows, as I can "or" an arbitrary number of conditions that can fit in variable space
#(
Echo off
Set "_Match= 1 2 3 "
)
Set /a "var=3"
Echo:%_Match%|Find " %var% ">nul || (
REM Code for a false condition goes here
) && (
REM code for a true condition goes here.
)
it's quite simple, just use below
IF %var% == 1 (
ECHO TRUE)
IF %var% == 2 (
ECHO TRUE)
Another option is to display the current environment variables and exploit the default behaviour of FINDSTR:
FINDSTR "hello there" x.y searches for "hello" or "there" in file x.y.
So
SET | FINDSTR /I /X "var=1 var=2" >NUL
IF %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 (
ECHO TRUE
) ELSE (
ECHO FALSE
)
Where
/I Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive.
/X Prints lines that match exactly.
If regular expressions are preferred, use FINDSTR /R /I "^var=1$ ^var=2$" >NUL instead.
Edit: FINDSTR /R should be used if the variable string includes a space, e.g., FINDSTR /R /I "^var=1 a$ ^var=2 b$" >NUL.
Edit: If the variable string includes spaces, a literal search string should be used. E.g., FINDSTR /I /X /C:"var=1 a" /C:"var=2 b" >NUL.
There is no OR operator but you can write (the pseudocode)
IF [%var%] == [1] OR IF [%var%] == [2] ECHO TRUE
like
IF "%var%" == "1" SET "match=y"
IF "%var%" == "2" SET "match=y"
IF DEFINED match ECHO TRUE
Note that the double quotes prevents a syntax error from being triggered if var is undefined.
I took bogdan's solution to the next level by building an extern function that is a callable and clean abstraction of IF, so it can be used in inline blocks. Don't look further, if you build a batch library anyways.
lib.cmd
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS
SHIFT & GOTO:%1
: Common batch extension library.
:::
: Performs conditional processing in batch programs. Is callable for inline use.
: Arguments:
: %1 - /I for case-insensitive comparison on strings, can be skipped for case-sensitive comparison.
: %2 - NOT to negate the result, can be skipped.
: %3 - EXIST for file checks or first string to compare with, also supports "string1"=="string2" (full condition).
: %4 - If EXIST is specified, path to the directory or file.
: Otherwise if %3 is not a full condition, this argument has to be one of:
: - == Compares both strings to be equal using lstrcmpW or lstrcmpiW (case-insensitive).
: - EQU Converts both strings to numbers and checks if they are equal.
: - NEQ Converts both strings to numbers and checks if they are not equal.
: - LSS Converts both strings to numbers and checks if the first is lesser than the second.
: - LEQ Converts both strings to numbers and checks if the first is lesser or equal than the second.
: - GTR Converts both strings to numbers and checks if the first is greater than the second.
: - GEQ Converts both strings to numbers and checks if the first is greater or equal than the second.
: If a string cannot be parsed to a number, its numeric representation will be used.
: This argument can be skipped, so == will be used.
: %5 - If %3 is not a full condition, this argument has to be the second string to compare.
: Outputs:
: Nothing
: Returns:
: 0, if the condition is met, 1 otherwise
:::
:test-if
IF "%~1"=="/I" SET "I=/I " & SHIFT
IF "%~1"=="/i" SET "I=/I " & SHIFT
IF "%~1"=="NOT" SET "NOT=NOT " & SHIFT
IF "%~1"=="not" SET "NOT=NOT " & SHIFT
IF "%~1"=="EXIST" SET "EXIST=EXIST " & SHIFT
IF "%~1"=="exist" SET "EXIST=EXIST " & SHIFT
SET "string1=%~1%"
IF "%~3"=="" (
SET "comp=^=^="
SET "string2=%~2"
) ELSE (
SET "comp=%~2"
SET "string2=%~3"
)
IF %I%%NOT%%EXIST% "%string1%" %comp% "%string2%" (
ENDLOCAL & EXIT /B 0
)
ENDLOCAL & EXIT /B 1
Usage
( ( CALL lib test-if "%1" == "foo" ) || ( CALL lib test-if "%1" == "bar" ) ) && (
ECHO "Argument is foo or bar"
)
lib is the path to the lib.cmd, the suffix .cmd is not mandatory for cmd-files
Any IF syntax is compatible with this abstraction, so you can also do things like test-if EXIST "path" or test-if not 300 LSS 200
The == in test-if "%1" == "foo" will be stripped away by batch and I address this fact in my case, but this causes test-if "%1" "foo" to be valid as well, it's not the standard though.
Realizing this is a bit of an old question, the responses helped me come up with a solution to testing command line arguments to a batch file; so I wanted to post my solution as well in case anyone else was looking for a similar solution.
First thing that I should point out is that I was having trouble getting IF ... ELSE statements to work inside of a FOR ... DO clause. Turns out (thanks to dbenham for inadvertently pointing this out in his examples) the ELSE statement cannot be on a separate line from the closing parens.
So instead of this:
FOR ... DO (
IF ... (
)
ELSE (
)
)
Which is my preference for readability and aesthetic reasons, you have to do this:
FOR ... DO (
IF ... (
) ELSE (
)
)
Now the ELSE statement doesn't return as an unrecognized command.
Finally, here's what I was attempting to do - I wanted to be able to pass several arguments to a batch file in any order, ignoring case, and reporting/failing on undefined arguments passed in. So here's my solution...
#ECHO OFF
SET ARG1=FALSE
SET ARG2=FALSE
SET ARG3=FALSE
SET ARG4=FALSE
SET ARGS=(arg1 Arg1 ARG1 arg2 Arg2 ARG2 arg3 Arg3 ARG3)
SET ARG=
FOR %%A IN (%*) DO (
SET TRUE=
FOR %%B in %ARGS% DO (
IF [%%A] == [%%B] SET TRUE=1
)
IF DEFINED TRUE (
SET %%A=TRUE
) ELSE (
SET ARG=%%A
GOTO UNDEFINED
)
)
ECHO %ARG1%
ECHO %ARG2%
ECHO %ARG3%
ECHO %ARG4%
GOTO END
:UNDEFINED
ECHO "%ARG%" is not an acceptable argument.
GOTO END
:END
Note, this will only report on the first failed argument. So if the user passes in more than one unacceptable argument, they will only be told about the first until it's corrected, then the second, etc.
The following program always echoes "machine-abc" in the end:
#echo Off
set dropLoc=machine-abc
IF %computername% == "xyz" (
%dropLoc% = machine-xyz
)
echo %dropLoc%
Is this a scope issue? Does the dropLoc variable in the if statement have a different scope? I have tried the following to address the issue:
#echo Off
set dropLoc=machine-abc
IF %computername% == "xyz" (
!dropLoc! = machine-xyz
)
echo %dropLoc%
and
#echo Off
set dropLoc=machine-abc
IF %computername% == "xyz" (
set dropLoc = machine-xyz
)
echo %dropLoc%
How do I make this work?
You got the SET syntax right the first time, how come you decided to write something else the second time round? Also, you have to add the quotation marks on both sides of the comparison. Unlike in other script interpreters, quotation marks aren't special for the batch interpreter.
#echo off
rem Change this for testing, remove for production
set computername=xyz
set dropLoc=machine-abc
if "%computername%" == "xyz" (
set dropLoc=machine-xyz
)
echo %dropLoc%
Further to How to Pass Command Line Parameters in batch file how does one get the rest of the parameters with specifying them exactly? I don't want to use SHIFT because I don't know how many parameters there might be and would like to avoid counting them, if I can.
For example, given this batch file:
#echo off
set par1=%1
set par2=%2
set par3=%3
set therest=%???
echo the script is %0
echo Parameter 1 is %par1%
echo Parameter 2 is %par2%
echo Parameter 3 is %par3%
echo and the rest are %therest%
Running mybatch opt1 opt2 opt3 opt4 opt5 ...opt20 would yield:
the script is mybatch
Parameter 1 is opt1
Parameter 2 is opt2
Parameter 3 is opt3
and the rest are opt4 opt5 ...opt20
I know %* gives all the parameters, but I don't wan't the first three (for example).
Here's how you can do it without using SHIFT:
#echo off
for /f "tokens=1-3*" %%a in ("%*") do (
set par1=%%a
set par2=%%b
set par3=%%c
set therest=%%d
)
echo the script is %0
echo Parameter 1 is %par1%
echo Parameter 2 is %par2%
echo Parameter 3 is %par3%
echo and the rest are %therest%
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set therest=;;;;;%*
set therest=!therest:;;;;;%1 %2 %3 =!
echo the script is %0
echo Parameter 1 is %1
echo Parameter 2 is %2
echo Parameter 3 is %3
echo and the rest are: %therest%
This works with quoted arguments and with arguments that have equal signs or commas, as long as first three arguments didn't have these special delimiter chars.
Sample output:
test_args.bat "1 1 1" 2 3 --a=b "x y z"
Parameter 1 is "1 1 1"
Parameter 2 is 2
Parameter 3 is 3
and the rest are: --a=b "x y z"
This works by replacing %1 %2 %3 in original command line %*. The first five semicolons are there just to make sure that only the first occurrence of these %1 %2 %3 is replaced.
The following code uses shift, but it avoids to parse the command line using for and lets the command line interpreter do this job (regard that for does not parse double-quotes properly, for instance argument set A B" "C is interpreted as 3 arguments A, B", "C by for, but as 2 arguments A, B" "C by the interpreter; this behaviour prevents quoted path arguments like "C:\Program Files\" from being handled correctly):
#echo off
set "par1=%1" & shift /1
set "par2=%1" & shift /1
set "par3=%1" & shift /1
set therest=
set delim=
:REPEAT
if "%1"=="" goto :UNTIL
set "therest=%therest%%delim%%1"
set "delim= "
shift /1
goto :REPEAT
:UNTIL
echo the script is "%0"
echo Parameter 1 is "%par1%"
echo Parameter 2 is "%par2%"
echo Parameter 3 is "%par3%"
echo and the rest are "%therest%"
rem.the additional double-quotes in the above echoes^
are intended to visualise potential whitespaces
The remaining arguments in %therest% might not look like the way they were originally concerning the delimiters (remember the command line interpreter also treats TABs, ,, ;, = as delimiters as well as all combinations), because all delimiters are replaced by a single space here. However, when passing %therest% to some other command or batch file, it will be parsed correctly.
The only limitation I encountered so far applies to arguments containing the caret character ^. Other limitations (related to <, >, |, &, ") apply to the command line interpreter itself.
#ECHO OFF
SET REST=
::# Guess you want 3rd and on.
CALL :SUBPUSH 3 %*
::# ':~1' here is merely to drop leading space.
ECHO REST=%REST:~1%
GOTO :EOF
:SUBPUSH
SET /A LAST=%1-1
SHIFT
::# Let's throw the first two away.
FOR /L %%z in (1,1,%LAST%) do (
SHIFT
)
:aloop
SET PAR=%~1
IF "x%PAR%" == "x" (
GOTO :EOF
)
ECHO PAR=%PAR%
SET REST=%REST% "%PAR%"
SHIFT
GOTO aloop
GOTO :EOF
I like to use subroutines instead of EnableDelayedExpansion. Above is extract from my dir/file pattern processing batch. Don't say this cannot handle arguments with =, but at least can do quoted path with spaces, and wildcards.
One more alternative :-)
some of the other answers did not deal with quotes, or with extra spaces between parameters. Disclaimer: I have not tested this extremely well.
This is all just a workaround for %* not being updated after a shift ugg!
I implemented it as a POP starting from the technique by #Pavel-P.
It relies on the batch parser to remove extra spaces
It depends on a global variable 'Params'
~ removes quotes -- leaving it up to you to re-quote as desired. Remove the ~ if you don't want that.
:PopFirstParam
#set varname=%~1
#set %varname%=%~2
#rem #echo %varname% = '!%varname%!'
#if '%3' equ '' set Params=&goto :eof
#call :popone %Params%
#goto :eof
:popone
#set Params=;;;%*
#set Params=!Params:;;;%1 =!
#goto :eof
Usage:
#setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
#set Params=%*
#call :PopFirstParam P1 %Params%
#call :PopFirstParam P2 %Params%
#call :PopFirstParam P3 %Params%
#call :PopFirstParam P4 %Params%
#rem etc . . .
Specifically I use it to optionally run commands asynchronously:
#setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
#rem set variables that decide what to be run . . . .
#call :RunIfDefined doNum1 "Title 1" mycmd1.exe some "params" here
#call :RunIfDefined doNum2 "MyTitle 2" mylongcmd2.exe some "params" here
#call :RunIfDefined doNum3 "Long Title 3" mycmd3.exe some "params" here
#goto :eof
:RunIfDefined
#set Params=%*
#call :PopFirstParam DefineCheck %Params%
#if not defined %DefineCheck% goto :eof
#call :PopFirstParam WindowTitle %Params%
#call :PopFirstParam Command %Params%
#rem %Params% should now be the remaining params (I don't care about spaces here)
#echo start "%WindowTitle%" "%Command%" %Params%
#start "%WindowTitle%" "%Command%" %Params%
#goto :eof
C:\test> set doNum1=yes
C:\test> set doNum3=yes
C:\test> call dothings.bat
start "Title 1" "mycmd1.exe" some "params" here
start "Long Title 3" "mycmd3.exe" some "params" here
too bad DOS doesn't have a #include