I apologize for such an elementary question, but I can't seem to find how to accomplish this basic task... I have a txt file that contains one line of text about 10 characters long. How do I store these 10 characters into a variable?

set /p myVAR=<myFILE.txt ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

I have the same problem and tried the following sample of code: type changedir.txt set /p %1=<changedir.txt cd %1 However, it did not work (output below). Could anybody point out what I am doing wrong? I am sure that it is something stupid but I just cannot see it. This is the output I got: D:\>type changedir.txt D:\HOME\ D:\>set /p = 0<changedir.txt D:\>cd D:\

As posted, your script needs a command line parameter, like: mybat abc Apparently you are not giving it a parameter, because it's missing in this line: set /p = 0<changedir.txt I don't know where you're going with this. If you just want to change to the dir named by the first parameter, you can skip the TYPE & SET. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Thank you for your reply, but I am afraid that I cannot do not fully understand your response. 1. You mentioned command line parameters. As far as I understand they are %1 to %9. For your example, I understand that if you do this from command prompt "mybat abc", abc will become %1. Am I correct? 2. I put the TYPE command to just show you what is in the file. As from the program output, it contains the text D:\HOME\ 3. You said that I am not giving it a parameter, but I used "set /p %1=<changedir.txt" exactly as you suggested in your last mail. "set /p = 0<changedir.txt" is the output I got when running the bat file. 4. Yes, you are correct. My aim is to change the directory to the contents in the file called changedir.txt. I have to do this because I am running a VB script and it cannot change the cmd directory, so I have to output it to a file and use a bat file to make it happen. I wonder if there is a way to go about it please?

By the way, this is what I get when use myvar instead of %1. The bat file: type changedir.txt set /p myvar=<changedir.txt cd myvar The screen output: D:\>type changedir.txt D:\dev\ D:\>set /p myvar= 0<changedir.txt D:\>cd myvar The system cannot find the path specified.

[1] yes [2] OK If you run: mybat abc then the variable abc will be set to the contents of the file changedir.txt If you don't want to give it a parameter, you can: set /p myVAR=<changedir.txt cd %myVAR% Note that if you want to change DRIVE and directory [I suppose you do.] you need: cd /d %myVAR% ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2