Question

I have the following VBScript code:

Dim returnVal
returnVal = "You did not pass me 4 arguments"

args = WScript.Arguments.Count

If args = 4 Then
    returnVal = "The arguements you passed me are " & WScript.Arguments.Item(0) & "  "  & WScript.Arguments.Item(1) & "  "  & WScript.Arguments.Item(2) & "  "  & WScript.Arguments.Item(3) 
end if

All I want is the ability to print “returnVal” so that if I typed:

test.vbs 1 2 3 4

It would return:

The arguments you passed me are 1 2 3 4

How can I do this?

Answer 1

To output to the command console window you can do this using:

WScript.Echo returnVal 

or

WScript.StdOut.WriteLine returnVal 

But you must use the CScript host for this to work, for example:

cscript.exe myscript.vbs

WScript is the GUI host and so has no knowledge of the standard input/output/error/aux streams. Trying to do WScript.StdOut.WriteLine will result in the following error dialogue:

---------------------------
Windows Script Host
---------------------------
Script: d:\myscript.vbs
Line:   12
Char:   1
Error:  The handle is invalid. 
Code:   80070006
Source:     (null)

---------------------------
OK   
---------------------------

In a CScript.exe script you can still pop up GUI message dialogues using:

Msgbox "Hello World!" 

Using WScript.Echo in a WScript host will display the message in a popup dialogue instead of printing to the command line window.

For more information see:

Write Method (Windows Script Host)

For more information on the differences between WScript and CScript and how to switch between them:

Sesame Script Stop and Go (MS TechNet)

The difference between Cscript and Wscript is that Cscript is the
command-line version of the script host and Wscript is the graphical
version. This difference isn’t really noticeable unless your script
uses the Wscript.Echo command.