Suppose I'm in a directory c:\temp. How do I write a for loop that will
create 26 directories, one for each letter of the alphabet? So like after the
for loop executes, the directory will have 26 folders like this:

c:\temp\a
c:\temp\b
c:\temp\c

....

c:\temp\z


Now, I know that to do this from the command-line, you tupe:

FOR %a IN (A B C) DO MKDIR %a

....but when I copy and paste the command into a file called CreateDirs.cmd
and double click that, it doesn't work. Why does it work at the command line
and not in the .cmd file?

"BigDaddyCool" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:295194F5-ABD5-48F3-85AB-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Suppose I'm in a directory c:\temp. How do I write a for loop that will
> create 26 directories, one for each letter of the alphabet? So like after
> the
> for loop executes, the directory will have 26 folders like this:
>
> c:\temp\a
> c:\temp\b
> c:\temp\c
>
> ...
>
> c:\temp\z
>
>
> Now, I know that to do this from the command-line, you tupe:
>
> FOR %a IN (A B C) DO MKDIR %a
>
> ...but when I copy and paste the command into a file called CreateDirs.cmd
> and double click that, it doesn't work. Why does it work at the command
> line
> and not in the .cmd file?

.. . . because you must double your % characters when running
the command from within a batch file.
@echo off
for %%a in (A B C) do md %%a

Thank you! It works!

Now, two more questions:

1. Writing out the entire alpohabet on one line is a bit of a pain because I
have to turn Word Wrap off. Is there any way I can extend the for loop onto
the next line without it interpreting the next as a separate command?

2. Suppose I want to do more with each created directory. Is there a way to
turn the for loop into a block of code that I can then work with each created
directory and then move on to the next one? I was thinking of something like
this:

FOR %%a IN (A B C ... Z) DO:
{
MKDIR %%a if it doesn't exists
COPY all files from c:\temp into c:\temp\%%a that start with that letter
go on to the next letter
}

or something like that


"Pegasus (MVP)" wrote:

>
> "BigDaddyCool" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:295194F5-ABD5-48F3-85AB-(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Suppose I'm in a directory c:\temp. How do I write a for loop that will
> > create 26 directories, one for each letter of the alphabet? So like after
> > the
> > for loop executes, the directory will have 26 folders like this:
> >
> > c:\temp\a
> > c:\temp\b
> > c:\temp\c
> >
> > ...
> >
> > c:\temp\z
> >
> >
> > Now, I know that to do this from the command-line, you tupe:
> >
> > FOR %a IN (A B C) DO MKDIR %a
> >
> > ...but when I copy and paste the command into a file called CreateDirs.cmd
> > and double click that, it doesn't work. Why does it work at the command
> > line
> > and not in the .cmd file?
>
> .. . . because you must double your % characters when running
> the command from within a batch file.
> @echo off
> for %%a in (A B C) do md %%a
>
>
>

See below.

"BigDaddyCool" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:97D69829-16D3-409A-B9BC-(E-Mail Removed)...
> Thank you! It works!
>
> Now, two more questions:
>
> 1. Writing out the entire alpohabet on one line is a bit of a pain because
> I
> have to turn Word Wrap off. Is there any way I can extend the for loop
> onto
> the next line without it interpreting the next as a separate command?

Yes, you can:
@echo off
echo A B C D ^
D E F

> 2. Suppose I want to do more with each created directory. Is there a way
> to
> turn the for loop into a block of code that I can then work with each
> created
> directory and then move on to the next one? I was thinking of something
> like
> this:
>
> FOR %%a IN (A B C ... Z) DO:
> {
> MKDIR %%a if it doesn't exists
> COPY all files from c:\temp into c:\temp\%%a that start with that letter
> go on to the next letter
> }
>
> or something like that

You were very close with your approach!
FOR %%a IN (A B C ... Z) DO (
if not exist %%a md %%a
copy /y c:\temp\*.* c:\temp\%%a
)

Best to indent lines inside a loop, for improved readability.

And since you're so interested in this stuff, here are two
approaches that will work too:

if not exist c:\temp\%%a (md c:\temp\%%a) else (echo %%a exists!)

or alternatively:
if exist c:\temp\%%a (
echo %%a exists!
) else (
md c:\temp\%%a
)