Question

How can I read the first line from a text file using a Windows batch file? Since the file is large I only want to deal with the first line.

Answer 1

Here’s a general-purpose batch file to print the top n lines from a file like the GNU head utility, instead of just a single line.

@echo off  if [%1] == [] goto usage if [%2] == [] goto usage  call :print_head %1 %2 goto :eof  REM REM print_head REM Prints the first non-blank %1 lines in the file %2. REM :print_head setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion set /a counter=0  for /f ^'usebackq^ eol^=^  ^ delims^=^' %%a in (%2) do (         if '!counter!'=='%1' goto :eof         echo %%a         set /a counter+=1 )  goto :eof  :usage echo Usage: head.bat COUNT FILENAME 

For example:

Z:\>head 1 'test file.c' ; this is line 1  Z:\>head 3 'test file.c' ; this is line 1     this is line 2 line 3 right here 

It does not currently count blank lines. It is also subject to the batch-file line-length restriction of 8 KB.