Hi all I was asked to write this batch file to maintain certain folder of its files. But I'm not very experienced in scripting, there might be different 'sets' of files and to delete the old files of certain set to a desired number of files of that set Type1a.abc Type1b.abc Type1c.abc Type2a.abc Type2b.abc Type2c.abc Type3a.cde Type3b.cde Type3c.cde So when calling the batch file, the first parameter is to allow the directory, the second is the number of files desired to keep maintained and lastly the type. So this is what I have right now, it doesn't do exactly its suppose to I'm at a bottleneck right now and need some help. REM @Echo off If not exist %1 .\Nul GoTo ERROR :CHECK Dir %1 /A:-D-H /B /l | Find /C %3> %Temp%.\%0.tmp For /F "tokens=1" %%I in (%temp%.\%0.tmp) Do Set NoFiles=%%I Echo Folder %1 contains %NoFiles% Files IF %NoFiles% GEQ %2 GOTO DELOLDEST GOTO EXIT :DELOLDEST for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir %1 /a-d /od /b /l | Find %3') do set Oldest=%%a echo Oldest=%Oldest% Del %1\"%oldest%" Goto CHECK :ERROR Echo Folder %1 missing or not found Goto EXIT :EXIT If exist %temp%.\%0.tmp Del %temp%.\%0.tmp Currently there is | unexpected error and I don't know other alternative to this For example in C:\Somewhere\Test Folder\ I have New Text Document.txt New Text Document(2).txt New Text Document(3).txt New Text Document(4).txt New Bitmap Image.bmp New Bitmap Image(2).bmp New Bitmap Image(3).bmp New Bitmap Image(4).bmp I wanna keep only 3 text file and 2 bitmap file I would call the script twice >Script "C:\Somewhere\Test Folder" 3 "new next" >Script "C:\Somewhere\Test Folder" 2 "new bitmap" something like that. any better suggestions on the method is also appreciated. thank you SchizophrenicX "I'm not psychic; I'm just damn good"

To fix the | unexpected error, change this: :DELOLDEST for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir %1 /a-d /od /b /l | Find %3') do set Oldest=%%a echo Oldest=%Oldest% To: :DELOLDEST for /f "delims=" %%a in ('dir %1 /a-d /od /b /l ^| Find %3') do set Oldest=%%a echo Oldest=%Oldest% You have to escape the | with a caret.

Wow !! Such a newbie mistake!! I was so frustrated I thought it was not possible to achieve what I wanted with my method of approach, thanks a bunch tonysathre after the correction the script worked PERFECTLY. Just one small glitch that I was thinking of correcting would be the 3rd parameter, in my code it has to be all lowercase (/l switches in dir) is it possible for non-case-sensitive? SchizophrenicX "I'm not psychic; I'm just damn good"

You mean in the find command? You can use findstr /i instead for non case-sensitivity.

Wow thanks that worked perfectly :P~ I'm still kinda green on scripting. Thanks to this community I'm picking up quite fast. :D SchizophrenicX "I'm not psychic; I'm just damn good"