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Asked: 2026-05-11T00:53:02+00:00

Having read an existing post on stackoverflow and done some reading around on the

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Having read an existing post on stackoverflow and done some reading around on the net. I thought it was time to post my question before I lost too much hair!

I have the following code within a batch file which I double click to run, under Windows XP SP3:

SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION  ::Observe variable is not defined SET test  ::Define initial value SET test = 'Two'  ::Observe initial value is set SET test  ::Verify if the contents of the variable matches our condition If '!test!' == 'Two' GOTO TWO  ::First Place holder :ONE  ::Echo first response ECHO 'One'  ::Second Place holder :TWO  ::Echo second response ECHO 'Two'  ::Await user input PAUSE  ENDLOCAL

Basically I am trying to establish if I can navigate through my script using conditionals. It seems apparent that I am getting some issues with variable scope and delayed variable expansion yet I’m a little lost on what I’m doing wrong.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

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1 Answer

  1. Your immediate problem is that you’re setting the variable to the value < ‘Two’> which you can see here:

    @echo off  SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION  ::Observe variable is not defined SET test  ::Define initial value SET test = 'Two'  ::Observe initial value is set SET test echo %test% echo..%test %.  ::Verify if the contents of the variable matches our condition If '!test!' == 'Two' GOTO TWO  ::First Place holder :ONE  ::Echo first response ECHO 'One'  ::Second Place holder :TWO  ::Echo second response ECHO 'Two'  ::Await user input PAUSE  ENDLOCAL

    which produces:

    Environment variable test not defined test = 'Two' . 'Two'. 'One' 'Two' Press any key to continue . . .

    The reason your ‘set test’ is outputting the variable is the same reason why ‘set t’ would – if there’s no variable of the specific name, it outputs all variables starting with that name.

    The set command is also a finicky little beast and does not like spaces surrounding the ‘=’ characters; it incorporates them (and the quotes by the way) into the environment variable name and the value assigned to it. Instead, use:

    set test=Two

    Also, where you’re using delayed expansion, it doesn’t matter since %test% and !test! would expand the same. It’s useful in statements like:

    if '!test!' == 'Two' (     set test=TwoAndABit     echo !test! )

    The inner echo will output TwoAndABit whereas %test%, which is expanded when the whole if-statement is encountered, would cause it to output Two.

    Still, I always use delayed expansion everywhere just for consistency.

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