Batch File Assistance (XP)

Topic

New Reply

I am trying to write a simple batch file using “INPUT”. The challenge I am encountering is the MENU is flickering most likely due to lines of code in the batch file.

Example Code:
@ECHO OFF

:MENU
CLS
ECHO 1. Display Time
ECHO 2. Dispaly Date
ECHO 3. Display current Directory
ECHO Q to Quit

set INPUT=
set P INPUT=Please make a selection

if “%input%”==”” goto MENU
if “%input%”==”1” goto TIME
if “%input%”==”2” goto DATE
if “%input%”==”3” goto DIR
if /I “%input%”==”Q” goto QUIT
GoTo MENU

:TIME
TIME
goto MENU

:DATE
DATE
goto MENU

:DIR
DIR
goto MENU

:QUIT
echo.
echo Goodbye
echo.
echo.
pause
exit

Thanks for your assistance,
John

Reply | Quote

Replies

I found the issue..a line of code was incorrect.

Incorrect statement:
set P INPUT=Please make a selection

Should read:
set /P INPUT=Please make a selection

Regards,
John

Reply | Quote

Well done for finding the problem!

But you might like to take account of users being perverse beyond measure. See what happens when you type 1 followed by a space in response to the question!

It may be friendly to test just the first character of %input% as in:

if “%input:~0,1%”==”1” goto date

If you simply want to display the (current) values of date and time (rather than change them) note that they are held in environmental variables %date% and %time%, according to your own Regional and Language Options.

echo %date% %time%

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

Reply | Quote

Batcher,

***<>***

I tried your suggestion and nothing really happened – the menu just refreshes. Since the 1 followed by a space is not found the code takes us back to the menu.

You do bring up a good point and got me thinking. What happens if the typed entry is not an option? A message should be displayed indicating that the entry was not valid.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Regards,
John
You

Reply | Quote

Just add an ECHO with the desired message before the GOTO MENU after the last “IF” statement in your menu. You might also want to add “/P” to the DIR command, with a PAUSE on the next line, to make sure your user sees the result.

btw, If you need to build proper menus for DOS, there are many existing well worked out solutions around, as well as command line extensions and programs that will do the job for you rather than the need to “roll your own”. If you’re doing this as a learning exercise, that’s

Reply | Quote

***<>***

I tried your suggestion and I did not get the expected results. No message was displayed.

Regards,
John

Reply | Quote

Tim was correct; you should end up with something like:

if “%input%”==”” goto MENU
if “%input%”==”1” goto TIME
if “%input%”==”2” goto DATE
if “%input%”==”3” goto DIR
if /I “%input%”==”Q” goto QUIT
ECHO You didn’t enter a valid option! Try again…
GoTo MENU

where the blue line is the suggested addition.

BATcher

Plethora means a lot to me.

Reply | Quote

My error..I had the CLS (clear screen) syntx at the beginning of the MENU. Once I remarked it out I could see the additional message.

Thanks,
John

Reply | Quote