Microsoft KB Archive/63071

= Only First 8 Characters in a Batch Label Recognized =

Article ID: 63071

Article Last Modified on 5/12/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 4.01 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.2 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.21 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q63071



SUMMARY
MS-DOS recognizes only the first eight characters of a batch file label; subsequent characters are ignored.

NOTE: This eight-character limitation also applies to the %config% variable passed to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file in MS-DOS versions 6.0 or later when you use multi-boot configurations.

For example, the labels LATESTCHANGE and LATESTCHANGES are identical to MS- DOS. The line &quot;GOTO LATESTCHANGE&quot; (without the quotation marks) transfers to the first label in the file that has same first eight characters as LATESTCHANGE.



MORE INFORMATION
The following examples illustrate this limitation.

Example 1
The following example

goto latestch


 * latestchanges

echo two


 * latestch

echo three

displays the following

two

three

rather than displaying the following:

three

Example 2
The following example


 * latestch

echo zero


 * latestchanges

echo one

goto latestchanges

displays the following until CTRL+C is pressed, terminating the batch file:

zero

one

zero

one

zero

one

etc.

Additional query words: 6.22 4.01 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20 multiboot

Keywords: KB63071

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