Basics of BATCH File

Basics of BATCH(.BAT) File

Introduction

A batch file is a script file in windows.

It is a plane text file which contains series of commands which needs to be executed by command line interpreter.

Batch files have .bat as extension.

Steps to create a batch file:

Step 1:Create a new text document

Step 2:Rename the file as per your choice and in the extension replace ".txt" by ".bat"

Step 3:Now Right click on the bat file and click on edit

Step 4:Type commands which needs to be executed and save the file.

Basic Commands:

• cls -This command is used to clear the screen

• ECHO - This command is used to display output to screen
• The other variants of ECHO are:
            1.ECHO OFF- Doesnt display DOS commnads on the screen
            2.ECHO ON- Displays DOS commands on the screen

• .Timeout seconds-It waits for specified amount of time(Seconds) before executing next command.User can skip the timer by pressing any key

• .Pause - Pauses the running of a batch file and displays the message "Press any key to continue ..." on the screen
•  The other variants of Pause commands are:
           1.pause {Displays "Press any key to continue ...".}
  
  
   2.pause < nul {Waits with no comment.}
  
  
           3.pause Do you want to continue? {Displays "Do you want to continue?" with                     "Press any key to continue ..." on the next line.}.

• SET- Set will view the DOS environment or create, change, or delete environment values.