Question

There is a folder which contains some random files:

file1.txt
file2.exe
file3.cpp
file4.exe

How to SIMPLY display exe files connected with numbers like this:

1. file2.exe
2. file4.exe

And then I enter the number of the file, which I want to delete.. If it is even possible to do this simply..

Answer 1

Shortest bullet proof solution I can come up with. Like Anders, the DEL statement is disabled by the ECHO command. Remove the ECHO to make the menu functional.

@echo off
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion
for /f "delims==" %%A in ('set menu 2^>nul') do set "%%A="
for /f "tokens=1* delims=:" %%A in ('dir /b *.exe 2^>nul ^| findstr /n "^"') do (
  set menu%%A=%%B
  echo %%A. %%B
)
if not defined menu1 exit /b
set "delNum="
set /p "delNum=Delete which file (enter the number): "
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
if defined menu!delNum! echo del "!menu%delNum%!"

The only thing I can think of that could go wrong is part of the menu could scroll off the screen if there are too many entries.

Additional messages can easily be incorporated. and an ELSE condition could be appended to the input validation to deal with invalid input.

A few subtle points of the code:

• FINDSTR /N provides incrementing file number. Avoids need for delayed expansion or CALL within menu builder loop. Delayed expansion should not be enabled when expanding a FOR variable containing a file name because it will corrupt names containing !.
• : is a safe FOR delimiter because a file name cannot contain :.
• delNum is cleared prior to SET /P because SET /P will preserve existing value if <Enter> is pressed without entering anything.
• Checking for the existence of the variable is the simplest way to validate the input. This is why it is critical that any existing MENU variables are undefined prior to building the menu.
• Must use delayed expansion in IF DEFINED validation, otherwise space in input could crash the script (thanks Anders for pointing out the flaw in the original code)
• DEL target must be quoted in case it contains spaces, even when delayed expansion is used.
• Added test to make sure at least one menu entry exists before continuing. There may not be any .exe files left to delete.