Microsoft KB Archive/75634

= Percent Signs Stripped from Batch File Text =

Article ID: 75634

Article Last Modified on 5/10/2003

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.1
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.2 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.21 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.3 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 3.3a
 * Microsoft MS-DOS 4.0 Standard Edition
 * 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 Q75634



SUMMARY
Using a percent sign (%) in a batch file requires that two percent signs (%%) be specified.

For example, the command to display &quot;5%&quot; from a batch file would be :   ECHO 5%%



MORE INFORMATION
MS-DOS uses %1, %2, ... %9 as replaceable command line parameters. For example, before executing the command ECHO %1, %1 will be replaced with the first parameter passed to the batch file. %0 is replaced with the command used to execute the batch file.

A single percent sign on a line is treated as a &quot;nul&quot; character in a batch file. For example:   ECHO %     is processed as ECHO ECHO a%b  is processed as ECHO ab If a command contains two percent signs, MS-DOS will treat any characters between them as an environment variable to be expanded. For example, if the SET command shows that the current environment variables are   COMSPEC=C:\COMMAND.COM PATH=C:\DOS PROMPT=$P$G B=C then   ECHO %PATH%     is processed as ECHO C:\DOS ECHO a%b%      is processed as ECHO aC   ECHO a%b b%a    is processed as ECHO aa If there are no characters between the two percent signs, one percent sign is stripped off and the other will remain. This is why a FOR command that echos the name of each file with a .COM extension would be   FOR %V IN (*.COM) DO ECHO %V but if the same command is placed in a batch file, the following is required:   FOR %%V IN (*.COM) DO ECHO %%V Reference(s):

&quot;Microsoft MS-DOS Batch File Quick Reference,&quot; Microsoft Press.

Additional query words: 6.22 3.20 3.21 3.30 3.30a 4.00 4.01 4.01a 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20

Keywords: KB75634

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