[windows] Windows batch: echo without new line

What is the Windows batch equivalent of the Linux shell command echo -n which suppresses the newline at the end of the output?

The idea is to write on the same line inside a loop.

Using: echo | set /p= or <NUL set /p= will both work to suppress the newline.

However, this can be very dangerous when writing more advanced scripts when checking the ERRORLEVEL becomes important as setting set /p= without specifying a variable name will set the ERRORLEVEL to 1.

A better approach would be to just use a dummy variable name like so:
echo | set /p dummyName=Hello World

This will produce exactly what you want without any sneaky stuff going on in the background as I had to find out the hard way, but this only works with the piped version; <NUL set /p dummyName=Hello will still raise the ERRORLEVEL to 1.

The simple SET /P method has limitations that vary slightly between Windows versions.

• Leading quotes may be stripped

• Leading white space may be stripped

• Leading = causes a syntax error.

See http://www.dostips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4209 for more information.

jeb posted a clever solution that solves most of the problems at Output text without linefeed, even with leading space or = I've refined the method so that it can safely print absolutely any valid batch string without the new line, on any version of Windows from XP onward. Note that the :writeInitialize method contains a string literal that may not post well to the site. A remark is included that describes what the character sequence should be.

The :write and :writeVar methods are optimized such that only strings containing troublesome leading characters are written using my modified version of jeb's COPY method. Non-troublesome strings are written using the simpler and faster SET /P method.

@echo off
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion
call :writeInitialize
call :write "=hello"
call :write " world!%$write.sub%OK!"
echo(
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set lf=^


set "str= hello!lf!world^!!!$write.sub!hello!lf!world"
echo(
echo str=!str!
echo(
call :write "str="
call :writeVar str
echo(
exit /b

:write  Str
::
:: Write the literal string Str to stdout without a terminating
:: carriage return or line feed. Enclosing quotes are stripped.
::
:: This routine works by calling :writeVar
::
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion
set "str=%~1"
call :writeVar str
exit /b


:writeVar  StrVar
::
:: Writes the value of variable StrVar to stdout without a terminating
:: carriage return or line feed.
::
:: The routine relies on variables defined by :writeInitialize. If the
:: variables are not yet defined, then it calls :writeInitialize to
:: temporarily define them. Performance can be improved by explicitly
:: calling :writeInitialize once before the first call to :writeVar
::
if not defined %~1 exit /b
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
if not defined $write.sub call :writeInitialize
set $write.special=1
if "!%~1:~0,1!" equ "^!" set "$write.special="
for /f delims^=^ eol^= %%A in ("!%~1:~0,1!") do (
  if "%%A" neq "=" if "!$write.problemChars:%%A=!" equ "!$write.problemChars!" set "$write.special="
)
if not defined $write.special (
  <nul set /p "=!%~1!"
  exit /b
)
>"%$write.temp%_1.txt" (echo !str!!$write.sub!)
copy "%$write.temp%_1.txt" /a "%$write.temp%_2.txt" /b >nul
type "%$write.temp%_2.txt"
del "%$write.temp%_1.txt" "%$write.temp%_2.txt"
set "str2=!str:*%$write.sub%=%$write.sub%!"
if "!str2!" neq "!str!" <nul set /p "=!str2!"
exit /b


:writeInitialize
::
:: Defines 3 variables needed by the :write and :writeVar routines
::
::   $write.temp - specifies a base path for temporary files
::
::   $write.sub  - contains the SUB character, also known as <CTRL-Z> or 0x1A
::
::   $write.problemChars - list of characters that cause problems for SET /P
::      <carriageReturn> <formFeed> <space> <tab> <0xFF> <equal> <quote>
::      Note that <lineFeed> and <equal> also causes problems, but are handled elsewhere
::
set "$write.temp=%temp%\writeTemp%random%"
copy nul "%$write.temp%.txt" /a >nul
for /f "usebackq" %%A in ("%$write.temp%.txt") do set "$write.sub=%%A"
del "%$write.temp%.txt"
for /f %%A in ('copy /z "%~f0" nul') do for /f %%B in ('cls') do (
  set "$write.problemChars=%%A%%B    ""
  REM the characters after %%B above should be <space> <tab> <0xFF>
)
exit /b

As an addendum to @xmechanix's answer, I noticed through writing the contents to a file:

echo | set /p dummyName=Hello World > somefile.txt

That this will add an extra space at the end of the printed string, which can be inconvenient, specially since we're trying to avoid adding a new line (another whitespace character) to the end of the string.

Fortunately, quoting the string to be printed, i.e. using:

echo | set /p dummyName="Hello World" > somefile.txt

Will print the string without any newline or space character at the end.

From here

<nul set /p =Testing testing

and also to echo beginning with spaces use

echo.Message goes here

Late answer here, but for anyone who needs to write special characters to a single line who find dbenham's answer to be about 80 lines too long and whose scripts may break (perhaps due to user-input) under the limitations of simply using set /p, it's probably easiest to just to pair your .bat or .cmd with a compiled C++ or C-language executable and then just cout or printf the characters. This will also allow you to easily write multiple times to one line if you're showing a sort of progress bar or something using characters, as OP apparently was.

I believe there's no such option. Alternatively you can try this

set text=Hello
set text=%text% world
echo %text%

Sample 1: This works and produces Exit code = 0. That is Good. Note the "." , directly after echo.

C:\Users\phife.dog\gitrepos\1\repo_abc\scripts #
@echo.| set /p JUNK_VAR=This is a message displayed like Linux echo -n would display it ... & echo %ERRORLEVEL%

This is a message displayed like Linux echo -n would display it ... 0

Sample 2: This works but produces Exit code = 1. That is Bad. Please note the lack of ".", after echo. That appears to be the difference.

C:\Users\phife.dog\gitrepos\1\repo_abc\scripts #
@echo | set /p JUNK_VAR=This is a message displayed like Linux echo -n would display it ... & echo %ERRORLEVEL%

This is a message displayed like Linux echo -n would display it ... 1

DIY cw.exe (console write) utility

If you don't find it out-of-the-box, off-the-shelf, you can DIY. With this cw utility you can use every kind of characters. At least, I'd like to think so. Please stress-test it and let me know.

Tools

All you need is .NET installed, which is very common nowadays.

Materials

Some characters typed/copy-pasted.

Steps

1. Create .bat file with the following content.

/* >nul 2>&1

@echo off
setlocal

set exe=cw
for /f "tokens=* delims=" %%v in ('dir /b /s /a:-d  /o:-n "%SystemRoot%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\*csc.exe"') do set "csc=%%v"

"%csc%" -nologo -out:"%exe%.exe" "%~f0"

endlocal
exit /b %errorlevel%

*/

using System;

namespace cw {
    class Program {
        static void Main() {
            var exe = Environment.GetCommandLineArgs()[0];
            var rawCmd = Environment.CommandLine;
            var line = rawCmd.Remove(rawCmd.IndexOf(exe),exe.Length).TrimStart('"');
            line = line.Length < 2 ? "\r" : line.Substring(2) ;
            Console.Write(line);
        }
    }
}

2. Run it.

3. Now you have a nice 4KB utility so you can delete the .bat.

Alternatively, you can insert this code as a subroutine in any batch, send the resulting .exe to %temp%, use it in your batch and delete it when you're done.

How to use

If you want write something without new line:
cw Whatever you want, even with "", but remember to escape ^|, ^^, ^&, etc. unless double-quoted, like in "| ^ &".

If you want a carriage return (going to the beginning of the line), run just
cw

So try this from command line:

for /l %a in (1,1,1000) do @(cw ^|&cw&cw /&cw&cw -&cw&cw \&cw)

Inspired by the answers to this question, I made a simple counter batch script that keeps printing the progress value (0-100%) on the same line (overwritting the previous one). Maybe this will also be valuable to others looking for a similar solution.

Remark: The * are non-printable characters, these should be entered using [Alt + Numpad 0 + Numpad 8] key combination, which is the backspace character.

@ECHO OFF

FOR /L %%A in (0, 10, 100) DO (     
    ECHO|SET /P="****%%A%%"    
    CALL:Wait 1
)

GOTO:EOF

:Wait
SET /A "delay=%~1+1"
CALL PING 127.0.0.1 -n %delay% > NUL
GOTO:EOF

Use EchoX.EXE from the terrific "Shell Scripting Toolkit" by Bill Stewart
How to suppress the linefeed in a Windows Cmd script:

@Echo Off
Rem Print three Echos in one line of output
EchoX -n "Part 1 - "
EchoX -n "Part 2 - "
EchoX    "Part 3"
Rem

gives:

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3
{empty line}
d:\Prompt>

The help for this usage is:

Usage: echox [-n] message
  -n       Do not skip to the next line.
  message  The text to be displayed.

The utility is smaller than 48K, and should live in your Path. More things it can do:
- print text without moving to the next line
- print text justified to the left, center, or right, within a certain width
- print text with Tabs, Linefeeds, and Returns
- print text in foreground and background colors

The Toolkit includes twelve more great scripting tricks.
The download page also hosts three other useful tool packages.

Maybe this is what your looking for, it's a old school script... :P

set nl=^& echo. 
echo %nl%The%nl%new%nl%line%nl%is%nl%not%nl%apparent%nl%throughout%nl%text%nl%
echo only in prompt.
pause

or maybe your trying to replace a current line instead of writing to a new line? you can experiment with this by removing the "%bs%" after the "." sign and also by spacing out the other "%bs%" after the "Example message".

for /f %%a in ('"prompt $H&for %%b in (1) do rem"') do set "bs=%%a"
<nul set /p=.%bs%         Example message         %bs%
pause

I find this really interesting because it uses a variable for a purpose other than what it is intended to do. as you can see the "%bs%" represents a backspace. The second "%bs%" uses the backspace to add spaces after the "Example message" to separate the "Pause command's output" without actually adding a visible character after the "Example message". However, this is also possible with a regular percentage sign.

I made a function out of @arnep 's idea:

echo|set /p="Hello World"

here it is:

:SL (sameline)
echo|set /p=%1
exit /b

Use it with call :SL "Hello There"
I know this is nothing special but it took me so long to think of it I figured I'd post it here.

Here is another method, it uses Powershell Write-Host which has a -NoNewLine parameter, combine that with start /b and it offers the same functionality from batch.

NoNewLines.cmd

@ECHO OFF
start /b /wait powershell.exe -command "Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 1 - ';Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 2 - ';Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 3 - '"
PAUSE

Output

Result 1 - Result 2 - Result 3 - Press any key to continue . . .

This one below is slightly different, doesn't work exactly like the OP wants, but is interesting because each result overwrites the previous result emulating a counter.

@ECHO OFF
start /b /wait powershell.exe -command "Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 1 - '"
start /b /wait powershell.exe -command "Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 2 - '"
start /b /wait powershell.exe -command "Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 3 - '"
start /b /wait powershell.exe -command "Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 4 - '"
start /b /wait powershell.exe -command "Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 5 - '"
start /b /wait powershell.exe -command "Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 6 - '"
start /b /wait powershell.exe -command "Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 7 - '"
start /b /wait powershell.exe -command "Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 8 - '"
start /b /wait powershell.exe -command "Write-Host -NoNewLine 'Result 9 - '"
PAUSE

You can remove the newline using "tr" from gnuwin32 (coreutils package)

@echo off
set L=First line
echo %L% | tr -d "\r\n"
echo Second line
pause

By the way, if you are doing lots of scripting, gnuwin32 is a goldmine.

You can suppress the new line by using the set /p command. The set /p command does not recognize a space, for that you can use a dot and a backspace character to make it recognize it. You can also use a variable as a memory and store what you want to print in it, so that you can print the variable instead of the sentence. For example:

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /f %%a in ('"prompt $H & for %%b in (1) do rem"') do (set "bs=%%a")
cls
set "var=Hello World! :)"
set "x=0"

:loop
set "display=!var:~%x%,1!"
<nul set /p "print=.%bs%%display%"
ping -n 1 localhost >nul
set /a "x=%x% + 1"
if "!var:~%x%,1!" == "" goto end
goto loop

:end
echo.
pause
exit

In this way you can print anything without a new line. I have made the program to print the characters one by one, but you can use words too instead of characters by changing the loop.

In the above example I used "enabledelayedexpansion" so the set /p command does not recognize "!" character and prints a dot instead of that. I hope that you don't have the use of the exclamation mark "!" ;)

Echo with preceding space and without newline

As stated by Pedro earlier, echo without new line and with preceding space works (provided "9" is a true [BackSpace]).

<nul set /p=.9    Hello everyone

I had some issues getting it to work in Windows 10 with the new console but managed the following way.
In CMD type:

echo .?>bs.txt

I got "?" by pressing [Alt] + [8]
(the actual symbol may vary depending upon codepage).

Then it's easy to copy the result from "bs.txt" using Notepad.exe to where it's needed.

@echo off
<nul set /p "_s=.?    Hello everyone"
echo: here

A solution for the stripped white space in SET /P:

the trick is that backspace char which you can summon in the text editor EDIT for DOS. To create it in EDIT press ctrlP+ctrlH. I would paste it here but this webpage can't display it. It's visible on Notepad though (it's werid, like a small black rectangle with a white circle in the center)

So you write this:

<nul set /p=.9    Hello everyone

The dot can be any char, it's only there to tell SET /P that the text starts there, before the spaces, and not at the "Hello". The "9" is a representation of the backspace char that I can't display here. You have to put it instead of the 9, and it will delete the "." , after which you'll get this:

    Hello Everyone

instead of:

Hello Everyone

I hope it helps

With jscript:

@if (@X)==(@Y) @end /*
    @cscript //E:JScript //nologo "%~nx0" %*
    @exit /b %errorlevel%
*/if(WScript.Arguments.Count()>0) WScript.StdOut.Write(WScript.Arguments.Item(0));

if it is called write.bat you can test it like:

call write.bat string & echo _Another_String_

If you want to use powershell but with cmd defined variables you can use:

set str=_My_StrinG_
powershell "Write-Host -NoNewline ""%str%""""  & echo #Another#STRING#