Hello all, I have "imax" environment variables (%file_1%, %file_2%, %file_3%, etc.) pointing to given physical files. In a loop, I want (let's say) to type them one by one. Naively, I was thinking of FOR /L %%i IN (1,1,%imax%) DO type XX but XX is the problem... file_%%i does not give me the physical file and %file_%%i% has an incorrect syntax. Any suggestions ? May be by using an array ? How one does that on MS DOS ? Thank you in advance. Karim Aguenaou

Hi, I honestly don't know what imax is, and I am hoping you will tell me. I did see the word dos though. So...... Note the (*.zip) is being searched for in the bat below. You will need to change the *.zip part, but leave the ( ) there. This command will process one file at a time until it can no longer find any files with the zip extension. At which time it will then quietly error out and end. If your files are txt just change it to (*.txt) dat (*.dat) ect. *********************snip here*************** cls @echo off if %1!==}{! goto pass2 for %%a in (*.zip) do call %0 }{ %%a goto end :pass2 type %1 more :end ***********************snip here*************** Hope this of some help, and you will let me know what imax is. Peace Goodwill and Happy Computing. World Library

Hi, Thanks for your reply. Sorry if I did not expressed myself clearly. "imax" in my example is the total number of files I want to process. I chose the type command to simplify. In one batch file (to be modified), the environment variables are set SET %file_1%=d:\alpha.txt SET %file_2%=d:\beta.dat SET %file_3%=d:\gamma.dat ... SET %file_20%=d:\omega.txt In another batch file (not to be modified), I want to type all the files FOR /L %%i IN (1,1,20) DO type ?? And I don't know what to put in the ??.. With file_%%i, the program will try to type the physical file file_1 but not d:\alpha.txt. %file_%%i% has an incorrect syntax. Thank you. Karim

Sorry, but the FOR command does not work that way. It does not count numbers, it count files, this is how you can use it: (example) for %A in (*.txt) do type %A this finds all *.txt files and types them. You can _not_ use FOR in the good old basic way, like 'FOR Y=0 TO 10' to do something several times. The FOR in DOS does not do the same thing.