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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-04T07:16:46+00:00

I’m trying to write a script that runs several operations using a starting variable

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I’m trying to write a script that runs several operations using a starting variable but it doesn’t work: the variable is only correct the first time it is parsed. Do you know what I am doing wrong? Is this a limitation of batch files or have I done something wrong? The enabled expansion technique doesn’t work either.

SET FILE1=zr1
SET FILE2=za1
SET FILE3=za2


FOR /L %%I IN (1,1,3) DO ( 
-o "%%FILE%%I%%.out" 
ECHO %%FILE%%I%% 
CD p:\compress\compare 
XCOPY "p:\compress\compare\%%FILE%%I%%.out"   
RENAME "%%FILE%%I%%.out" "TEST" 
XCOPY "p:\compress\compare\%%FILE%%I%%.out" /e 
RENAME "%%FILE%%I%%.out" "GOOD" 
COMPARE 
RENAME "OUTPUT" "%%FILE%%I%%.out" 
CD p:\compress\outputFILEs 
XCOPY "p:\compress\compare\%%FILE%%I%%.out" /e 
)
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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    You need to properly use Delayed Expansion. Remember that variable expansions are achieved in two stages: %percents% first in left to right order, and then !exclamations!:

    ECHO !FILE%%I!

    For a more detailed explanation, see this answer.

    Also, I suggest you to use array notation for this type of management this way:

    SET FILE[1]=zr1
SET FILE[2]=za1
SET FILE[3]=za2
. . .
ECHO !FILE[%%I]!

    The reasons to do that are explained here

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