Windows command line syntax variables

Skip to main content. This browser is no longer supported. Download Microsoft Edge More info. Contents Exit focus mode. Is this page helpful? Please rate your experience Yes No. Any additional feedback? Submit and view feedback for This product This page. View all page feedback. In this article. Represents a replaceable parameter. Specifies one or more files, directories, or text strings, or a range of values on which to run the command. The parentheses are required. Specifies the command that you want to carry out on each file, directory, or text string, or on the range of values included in set.

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In this article. Specifies a message to prompt the user for input. By default this control character is configured to be the tab key for both file and directory names, although they can be different.

To change this control character, run regedit. Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making the following changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on the computer. Set these values to that of the control character you wish to use. See virtual key codes for a complete list. To disable a particular completion character in the registry, use the value for space 0x20 as it is not a valid control character.

You can also enable or disable file and directory name completion per instance of a Command shell by running cmd. User-specified settings take precedence over computer settings, and command-line options take precedence over registry settings. I use this variable to make fully qualified filepaths to any other files in the same directory as our script. Variable Declaration DOS does not require declaration of variables. Listing Existing Variables The SET command with no arguments will list all variables for the current command prompt session.

Variable Scope Global vs Local By default, variables are global to your entire command prompt session. Special Variables There are a few special situations where variables work a bit differently. Command Line Arguments to Your Script You can read the command line arguments passed to your script using a special syntax. Tricks with Command Line Arguments Command Line Arguments also support some really useful optional syntax to run quasi-macros on command line arguments that are file paths.

You will need to quote any file paths, but, quoting a file path twice will cause a file not found error.