Advanced batch files

Useful for passwords. GreaterThan - Check to see if one number is greater than another number. Hideself - Hide the batch file window during run time. HideWindow - Hide any application using the Window Title. LaunchSilent - Launch any application completely invisible. LessThan - Check to see if one number is less than another number. LimitDecimal - Limit a decimal number to a certain number of decimal places. Locate - Position the text cursor at the specified coordinates on the screen. Useful for printing text anywhere.

LocateAt - Position the text cursor at the specified coordinates on the screen. MakeInteger - Change a decimal number to an integer. MakeLower - Change a string of text to lowercase.

MouseCmd - Allows the use of the mouse within your batch file. Create clickable buttons. Multiply - Multiply two numbers. PaintBoxAt - Print a graphical box centered on the console screen. Two borders available. PaintScreen - Change the background color of the batch file window. PrintBox - Print a graphical box on the screen at the supplied coordinates. PrintBoxAt - Print a graphical box on the screen at the supplied coordinates.

PrintCenter - Prints color text centered on the console screen. PrintColor - Prints color text where the text cursor is. PrintColorAt - Prints color text at the specified coordinates. This will send the text cursor to the first column on the next row. ShadeBoxAt - Paints 1 of 4 different text patterns in the form of a box at the specified coordinates. ShowSelf - Makes the batch file console window reappear during run time. Useful if compiled as Invisible. ShowWindow - Show any hidden running application window by specifying the window tile.

Subtract - Subtract a number from another number. Wait - The batch file script will wait the specified number of milliseconds before running the next command. The cursor is hidden so you can string graphical commands together without the cursor blinking on the screen. You may want to use the CursorShow command after you use these commands. You must know the window title. Watch for double spaces.

Use double quotes "" if no options. Recommend Embedding the target EXE. If you must run an App with spaces in the path, use CD command to change the current directory then just enter the EXE filename without path. Moves the cursor Y number of spaces down and X number of spaces right from the top left corner.

Separate multiple buttons with a space. They are stored in the clipboard. See example. Prints colored text on the screen at the Y X coordinates without printing a Return.

The compiler does NOT check for the correct data type. Save your batch file after compiling it to save the Project Options including EXE path, icon, version information. In our implementation we can trivially swap the order of two elements by simply renaming the files that the elements are stored in! The code below shows the :swap subroutine that tests for less-than-or-equal and swaps the elements accordingly. The first problem though, is how to read our element values out of the files they are stored in, and into an environment variable that we can use to make the comparison.

We can utilize this feature by redirecting the file containing the element into the set command, thereby setting the variable to the contents of the file. Interestingly, if the values are numeric, then a numeric comparison is performed instead of a string compare, which means that this batch script can sort lists of numbers just as easily as strings, with no modification whatsoever.

The available comparison operators for the string compare are shown below, but for our sort we only need LEQ , less-than-or-equal. We could also have used GEQ , greater-than-or-equal, and our sort would sort in the opposite direction. Implementing a batch sort that can accept a flag indicating whether an ascending or descending sort should be performed is left as an exercise for the reader.

Once our list is sorted, we need to be able to output the results. These numbers are actually indices into our now sorted array. For each element in the set, we call the :showval routine to display the contents of the file with the given index number. Once the loop is complete, we clean up any leftover files and free up the environment variables by setting them to nothing. The completed program is shown below. To use it, simply copy and paste the code into a new text file, with a.

Windows Notepad is an excellent editor for creating batch files. Hopefully, this article has provided some insight into the power of batch file programming. It is not always necessary to fire up a complex IDE to create software. Just do what all the other programming languages do!

Well hold your horses cowboy. Not so fast. A Batch file isn't just your regular ol' programming langage. I think not. End of story. It does exactly what it says; it GOes TO a label in the batch file script. To use this command, you must first have a label in place.

But Closing the window works just as well. The GOTO can skip, or reorder your code as well. This next bit isn't really a 'command,' but rather an added syntax into other commands. What it does is it takes the Output of a certain command, and can write it into a Text file.

It's easier to explain if you see it in action first. We then use the DIR Command, which, if you read the Basics of Batch, you would know as showing the contents of your current directory. But wait, there's a problem! What do I do?

Well I'm glad you asked. So let's try it. Worked Perfectly! So wait. Does that mean that I can write anything I want into a text file? I want to try it! Why didn't that work? It's because the parameter only writes the output of Legitimate Commands, not just anything you type in.

But, this is a problem that is simply solved. Remember, the parameters record the Output of Commands. What command has an output that we can control? So let's put it all together! Here are some sample codes I've made that use the commands I've shown you in this instructable. This code will add 1 to a variable continually, and output the result indefinitely.

You must guess the number. If you're not careful, however, it can get out of hand fairly quickly, depending on your computer's ability. What this file does is it indefinitely creates numbered text files in a directory called lolnumbers. Each of these text files contains the DIR of the lolnumbers directory. The thing is, the directory is constantly getting fuller and fuller with text files, so each consecutive text file is larger than the last.

The result of this is a folder whose total size gets larger and larger every second. Experiment with them to your heart's content.

We covered a heck of a lot in this instructable. This one is, infact, 3 times longer than my last one. I hope ya'll enjoyed it! Just a few reminders before I go. Also, there are built-in variables as well. The range cannot be changed, I don't think. And that's basically it! I hope you enjoyed this instructable, I worked really hard on it.

Hopefully, it will make up for the 10 Month Absence. Now the bad news. I will have a bit of trouble answering any questions in the next few months, because I will be out of Country.