How can I check if an argument is defined when starting calling a batch file

Question

I m trying to use the following validation logic in a batch file but the  usage  block never executes even when no parameter is supplied to the batch file   if    1       goto usage   echo This should not execute   echo Done  goto  eof   usage  echo Usage   0  lt EnvironmentName gt  exit 1   What am I doing wrong

User · Answer

A more-advanced example    unlimited arguments    exist on file system  either file or directory   or a generic string    specify if is a file   specify is a directory   no extensions  would work in legacy scripts    minimal code      echo off   loop         -------------------------- has argument         if     1                   echo done          goto end                 -------------------------- argument exist         if not exist   s1           echo not exist         else           echo exist         if exist   s1 NUL             echo is a directory           else             echo is a file                           --------------------------       shift       goto loop                end  pause    other stuff       in   1 - the   removes any wrapping  quot  or       in   s1 - the s makes the path be DOS 8 3 naming  which is a nice trick to avoid spaces in file-name while checking stuff  and this way no need to wrap the resource with more  quot s     the   quot   1 quot      quot  quot    quot can not be sure quot  if the argument is a file directory or just a generic string yet  so instead the expression uses brackets and the original unmodified  1  just without the  quot  wrapping  if any    if there were no arguments of if we ve used shift and the arg-list pointer has passed the last one  the expression will be evaluated to   quot  quot      quot  quot       this is as much specific you can be without using more tricks  it would work even in windows-95 s batch-scripts        execution examples save it as identifier cmd it can identify an unlimited arguments  normally you are limited to  1- 9   just remember to wrap the arguments with inverted-commas  or use 8 3 naming  or drag amp drop them over  it automatically  does either of above    this allows you to run the following commands   identifier cmd c  windows and to get  exist is a directory done    identifier cmd  quot c  Program Files  x86  Microsoft Office OFFICE11 WINWORD EXE quot  and to get  exist is a file done     and multiple arguments  of course this is the whole-deal    identifier cmd c  windows system32 c  hiberfil sys  quot c  pagefile sys quot  hello-world and to get  exist is a directory exist is a file exist is a file not exist done   naturally it can be a lot more complex  but nice examples should always be simple and minimal     Hope it helps anyone    published here CMD Ninja - Unlimited Arguments Processing  Identifying If Exist In File-System  Identifying If File Or Directory and here is a working example that takes any amount of APK files  Android apps  and installs them on your device via debug-console  ADB exe   Make The Previous Post A Mass APK Installer That Does Not Uses ADB Install-Multi Syntax

User · Answer

This is the same as the other answers  but uses only one label and puts the usage first  which additionally makes it serve as a kind of documentation commend of the script which is also usually placed at the top    echo off    add other test for the arguments here    if not   1      goto main    -------------------------- echo This command does something  echo  echo  0 param  1 param  2 echo       param  1 the file to operate on echo       param  1 another file     -------------------------- exit  B 1   main    -------------------------- echo do something with all arguments             here      However  if you don t have to use cmd batch  use bash on WSL or powershell  they have more sane syntax and less arcane features

User · Answer

IF   1      will fail  all versions of this will fail under certain poison character conditions  Only IF DEFINED or IF NOT DEFINED are safe

User · Answer

IF   1      GOTO  Continue              Continue IF   1      echo No Parameter given

User · Answer

The check for whether a commandline argument has been set can be   1       but  as Dave Costa points out    1      will also work   I also fixed a syntax error in the usage echo to escape the greater-than and less-than signs  In addition  the exit needs a  B argument otherwise CMD exe will quit    echo off  if   1      goto usage  echo This should not execute  echo Done  goto  eof  usage  echo Usage   0   lt EnvironmentName  gt  exit  B 1

User · Answer

IF    1      GOTO  Usage     will de-quote  1 if  1 itself is quoted       will protect from special characters passed  for example calling the script with  amp ping

User · Answer

Get rid of the parentheses   Sample batch file   echo   1   if    1       echo match1  if   1      echo match2   Output from running above script   C   gt echo         C   gt if            echo match1   C   gt if          echo match2  match2   I think it is actually taking the parentheses to be part of the strings and they are being compared

[batch-file] How can I check if an argument is defined when starting/calling a batch file?

A more-advanced example:

¦ execution examples

Hope it helps anyone :)

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