Question

I am trying to do this in a DOS CMD Script:

@setlocal
@for /L %%X in (1,1,10) do @call :label1 %%X
@endlocal
@exit /b

:label1
@set I=%1
@set /P A%I%=SET A%I% to?
@echo You entered %%A%%I%%
exit /b

However I cannot get it to echo the actual entered value. I have tried all variations on the echo line.

Can anyone tell me what I am doing wrong?

Answer 1

To get your output, you could use call echo You entered %%A%I%%%.

But it would be better to use delayed expansion so that special characters like & and | can never cause you problems: echo You entered !A%I%!

In order to use delayed expansion, you need to enable it with setlocal enableDelayedExpansion.

Helpful hint 1 – Put @echo off at the top of your script. Then you never need to use @ in any of the following commands.

Helpful hint 2 – You should explicitly clear any existing variable value prior to using SET /P. You can’t be sure it is not already defined. If the user simply presses <Enter> without entering anything, then the existing value will be preserved.

Helpful hint 3 – You don’t even need the I variable. You can simply use the %1 parameter wherever you have %I%.

Helpful hint 4 – Better yet, you don’t even need to call a subroutine.

@echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
for /L %%X in (1,1,10) do (
  set "A%%X="
  set /P "A%%X=SET A%%X to? "
  echo You entered !A%%X!
)
endlocal