hello I want to extract some lines from a file and then redirect the output into many different files; I've managed to jot down this code which is working fine with one input file BUT just one output file :: start @echo off setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion >out.met for /f "tokens=* delims= " %%a in (inp.met)do ( set /a N+=1 if !N! geq 1 if !N! leq 26 echo %%a >>out.met if !N! equ 28 echo %%a >>out.met if !N! geq 29 if !N! leq 52 echo %%a >>out.met ) ::end now I would like to generalise it so that from the input file are taken: lines 1 to 26 line 28 lines 29+i to 52+i where i=0, 24, 48, 72, and so on with step 24 and these lines are redirected to n output files (as many as the number of reiterations) and finally output files named with consecutive numbers Im'm thinking to something like :: for /L %%i in (29 24 8812) do ( if !N! equ %%i echo %%a ...... :: to add somewhere to the above code but I cannot find a proper solution... any hint? thank you max

I'm not quite with you. Will there be multiple input files? Or one input for which you need to 'skip by 24'? ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

input: just one file named inp.met (txt file) output: many files to be named with a consecutive number *.met (in this case: 8812 - 28 = 8784 lines from original file, 8784 lines / 24 lines/out file = 366 out files as final product) lines 1 to 26 and line 28 of original input file (inp.met) are also stored in each output file in other words, the "head" of the final output files is always the same while the "tail" (i.e. last 24 lines) is different thank you

@echo off & setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion type inp.met | find /N /V "" | find /V "[27]" > tmp.met set idx=0 set fno=0000 set lim=28 type nul > out_0000.met for /F "tokens=1* delims=[]" %%j in (tmp.met) do ( if %%j gtr !lim! ( set /A lim+=24 set /A idx+=1 set fno=!idx! if !idx! lss 10 set fno=0!fno! if !idx! lss 100 set fno=0!fno! if !idx! lss 1000 set fno=0!fno! type nul > out_!fno!.met ) echo.%%k>> out_!fno!.met ) del tmp.met ren out_0000.met header.met for %%j in (out_????.met) do copy header.met + %%j %%~nj.tmp > nul del header.met del out_????.met ren out_????.tmp out_????.met. :: End_Of_Batch

well ivo, it's amazing! in that batch there is a wealth of things to study about: piping, declaration and use of dinamic variables, renaming of files with the by-pass of the "octave problem", pasting of files and so on... Now I have something to work upon for the next few weeks! Just one thing: at the very end of each final product file there is a symbol like  what is it? and how can I get a rid of it ? (because that symbol is somehow hampering my further usage of the file as input to another processing...) thank you so much max

The exoteric symbol is ASCII hex 1A that marks the end of file. To get rid of that replace for %%j in (out_????.met) do copy header.met + %%j %%~nj.tmp > nul with for %%j in (out_????.met) do copy header.met + %%j %%~nj.tmp /B > nul Good work and Ciao Ivo

...oh, I see now! and now I fully inderstand also some other problems I had with the concatenation of files (in other scripting execises) ...and here again another lesson learned! thanks ciao max