I need to be able to assign the contents of a *.txt or *.log file to a variable in a batch instance. 1. open batch file 2. creates x.txt file with information X 3. batch file terminates 4. batch file is reopened 5. batch file assigns information X found in file X to variable X 6. variable X is used in code WHY? I have a chat program I have made for use at school over the student (s:\) drive. There is also a 'master' version with features that can affect the other chat programs. I want to implement a color changing feature. I have it working currently although it is impracticable as there is a long delay while it checks for all existing files. The current script sort of works like this: 1. Master chat creates XX.col file 2. chat file checks for .col files: CODE: if exist 0B.col color 0B if exist 0C.col color 0C if exist 0D.col color 0D ... etc. /CODE 3. color of batch instance is changed accordingly As you can see very long winded and time consuming. Creating a file with the color variable in it would be a lot easier. Thanks in advance, I would appreciate all possible help! =P Contact me: deltaslaya@hotmail.com ThanX o.O -DeltaSlaya™ "This post is provided 'as-is', implies no warranties and confers no rights."

Not sure I'm with you. Like this? ::== @echo off echo 0D>x.txt set /p X=<x.txt echo X=%X% ::== ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Thanks a lot dude, that works great. To answer what I was trying to do: I have made a chat program at my school that writes input to a file and then outputs it on screen (obviously). Though i have implemented other features for the purpose of increasing my programming skill. Such as banning and this 'color' thing. I had got it working but the code I used took too long to run through because I don't really know much about batch except what it tells you in /? etc. Thanks a lot though. Any chance you have MSN? I get all the code except this bit if you dont care to explain: set /p X=<x.txt I get the set, X and x.txt but not the < and /p (prompt), what function do they perform, why do u need the /p there? Code I have now is something like this: ON 'master chat' (creator of color file) ::CODE/ set col= color /? echo. echo Color code: (set /p col=? ) attrib -r col.txt echo %col%>col.txt attrib +r col.txt echo. echo Done. ::/CODE for chat (changes color according to file) ::CODE/ set color=0F if exist col.txt set /p color=<col.txt color %color% ::/CODE Thanks for help and if you could answer questions it would be appreciated! -DeltaSlaya™ "This post is provided 'as-is', implies no warranties and confers no rights."

The set /p says to wait for input and this: set /p X=<col.txt sends the contents of col.txt as input to set /p. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2