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Asked: 2010-01-11 22:19:08 +0800 CST

Line break in batch file

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I have a simple batch file (forbat.bat), with the following content:

FOR /F "tokens=4 delims=," %%G IN ("deposit,$4500,123.4,12-AUG-09") DO @echo Date paid %%G

When I run this batch file, I can get the result.

Now, I want to break the lines into a few lines, to make them easier to read. This is what I did:

FOR /F "tokens=4 delims=," %%G IN ("deposit,$4500,123.4,12-AUG-09") 
 DO 
 @echo Date paid %%G

This time, I got a "The syntax of the command is incorrect" error.

It seems that I must have missed some semicolons and slashes when introducing the line breaks. How to make the above code work in windows batch file?

windows batch-file

3 Answers

  1. As Dennis said, you can use the caret, but you mustn't have spaces at the start of the following lines:

    FOR /F "tokens=4 delims=," %%G IN ("deposit,$4500,123.4,12-AUG-09") ^ 
DO ^ 
echo Date paid %%G

    Otherwise it doesn't work. However, if you are willing to leave the DO in the original line, you can use parentheses to delimit a block

    FOR /F "tokens=4 delims=," %%G IN ("deposit,$4500,123.4,12-AUG-09") DO (
   @echo Date paid %%G
)
    • 6

  2. You need a carat "^" for a line continuation character at the end of each line where commands are split.

    FOR /F "tokens=4 delims=," %%G IN ("deposit,$4500,123.4,12-AUG-09") ^
DO ^
echo Date paid %%G
    • 2
  3. Best Answer

    This is the correct syntax, that works on my Windows XP machine:

    FOR /F "tokens=4 delims=," %%G IN ("deposit,$4500,123.4,12-AUG-09") DO (  
@echo Date paid %%G 
@echo hiforbat )

    This is the output:

    Date paid 12-AUG-09
hi
    • 1