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Asked: 2026-05-31T19:49:18+00:00

Let’s say I have a batch file that has padding in it, and I

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Let’s say I have a batch file that has “padding” in it, and I want to indent the beginning of the prompt string for the user to type in. If I use spaces, it will not show up when run, it just ignores the spaces. This script for an example:

@echo off

echo.
echo.
echo    Hi.
echo    Please input something.
echo.
set /P input=

After the = there is three spaces, and what I expect is that the marker for input is away from the edge of the command box, however these spaces are ignored.

How can I fix this problem? I am using Windows 7 SP1.

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    As the comments above state, Vista and beyond strip leading spaces in a SET /P prompt.

    The way to get around the problem is to define and use a backspace character in the prompt.

    ::define a variable containing a single backspace character
for /f %%A in ('"prompt $H &echo on &for %%B in (1) do rem"') do set BS=%%A

set /p var=%BS%   Leading spaces will not show properly.

    Normally the prompt will be at the beginning of a line, so the above works just fine.

    But if the prompt is issued from the middle of a line (very unusual), then a leading character should be included prior to the <BS>, since the backspace will erase whatever was before it.

    <nul set/p=Leave the cursor at the end of this line:
set /p var=.%BS%   The dot (any char) is necessary to prevent the <BS> from erasing the :
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