I have a DOS network meter, but I'm trying to shorten it. Below is an simplified version of the program: @echo off :BEGIN set DownDisplay=[ ] set UpDisplay=[ ] set down1= set up1= set down2= set up2= for /F "tokens=2" %%a in ('"netstat -e | find /I "byte""') do set down1=%%a for /F "tokens=3" %%a in ('"netstat -e | find /I "byte""') do set up1=%%a ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 >nul for /F "tokens=2" %%a in ('"netstat -e | find /I "byte""') do set /A down2=(%%a-%down1%)/1390 for /F "tokens=3" %%a in ('"netstat -e | find /I "byte""') do set /A up2=(%%a-%up1%)/1024 cls echo. if %down2% EQU 1 set DownDisplay=[I ] if %down2% EQU 2 set DownDisplay=[II ] if %down2% EQU 3 set DownDisplay=[III ] if %down2% EQU 4 set DownDisplay=[IIII ] if %down2% EQU 5 set DownDisplay=[IIIII] if %up2% EQU 1 set UpDisplay=[I ] if %up2% EQU 2 set UpDisplay=[II ] if %up2% EQU 3 set UpDisplay=[III ] if %up2% EQU 4 set UpDisplay=[IIII ] if %up2% EQU 5 set UpDisplay=[IIIII] echo %DownDisplay% echo %UpDisplay% ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 >nul goto BEGIN Basically, I'm trying to find a way to have only a few lines devoted to determining how many "I"s to display (my actual program would need over 50 lines to do it). I hope I'm just missing a simple solution. What do you all think?

Initially, I'd replace if %down2% EQU 1 set DownDisplay=[I ] if %down2% EQU 2 set DownDisplay=[II ] if %down2% EQU 3 set DownDisplay=[III ] if %down2% EQU 4 set DownDisplay=[IIII ] if %down2% EQU 5 set DownDisplay=[IIIII] if %up2% EQU 1 set UpDisplay=[I ] if %up2% EQU 2 set UpDisplay=[II ] if %up2% EQU 3 set UpDisplay=[III ] if %up2% EQU 4 set UpDisplay=[IIII ] if %up2% EQU 5 set UpDisplay=[IIIII] echo %DownDisplay% echo %UpDisplay% ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 >nul goto BEGIN with call :show %down2% call :show %up2% ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 >nul goto begin :show set disp=[ ] if %1 EQU 1 set disp=[I ] if %1 EQU 2 set disp=[II ] if %1 EQU 3 set disp=[III ] if %1 EQU 4 set disp=[IIII ] if %1 EQU 5 set disp=[IIIII] echo %disp% goto :eof I've tried using variables inside substrings. Doesn't seem to work. The only way around it seems to be to do the whole thing in vbscript.

This is a lot slower: you may not even need your ping to slow it down call :show %down2% call :show %up2% ping 127.0.0.1 -n 2 >nul goto :eof :show set disp=[ set x=%1 :moreI if %x% GTR 0 ( set disp=%disp%I set /a x=%x% - 1 goto moreI ) set x=%1 :moreSP if %x% LSS 50 ( set disp=%disp%_ set /a x=%x% + 1 goto moreSP ) set disp=%disp%] echo %disp% goto :eof

Here's what I have now: @echo off setlocal :START set downindicator= set upindicator= for /F "tokens=2" %%a in ('"netstat -e | find /I "byte""') do set down1=%%a for /F "tokens=3" %%a in ('"netstat -e | find /I "byte""') do set up1=%%a for /F "tokens=2" %%a in ('"netstat -e | find /I "byte""') do set /A down2=(%%a-%down1%)/1390 for /F "tokens=3" %%a in ('"netstat -e | find /I "byte""') do set /A up2=(%%a-%up1%)/1024 cls echo. call :show %down2% call :show %up2% ping 1.1.1.1 -n 1 -w 1000>nul goto START :show set disp=[ set x=%1 :moreI if %x% GTR 0 ( set disp=%disp%I set /a x=%x% - 1 goto moreI ) set x=%1 :moreSP if %x% LSS 50 ( set disp=%disp%_ set /a x=%x% + 1 goto moreSP ) set disp=%disp%] echo %disp% goto :eof It works really well, almost too good. When the amount of network traffic gets high, the "I"s kind of spill over and fill the DOS window. Would there be a way to modify your code to let it indicate that every five "I"s indicates 100 kb transferred? Hopefully that wouldn't require a lot of extra code. Thanks!!!

What sort of figures are you getting? You can scale it down by whatever you wish. In :show set /a x=%1/100 That will scale it down by 100

You're good. :D Now I see how it's working, and it's so completely simple; it's running like a champ. Thank you so much!!!