Windows Command Line: how to loop over a list?

Question

On Windows Command Line I would like to loop over a list the following way:

list = 1,2,4,8,4,1,5

for /f %x in list do (echo %x)

But the above does not work, so how one loop over a list with the Windows Command line?

Are you **really** using MS-DOS (then the answer is no, because there is no such `for` loop in MS-DOS) or are you referring to the command line in Windows? — , Sep 26 '16 at 15:08
@Bill_Stewart Why use PowerShell? Machine code is much faster. — Stephan, Sep 26 '16 at 18:11

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 26 '16 at 15:10

3

Save this as a batch file and run it from Command Prompt.

@echo off

set mylist=does,this,work

for %%i in (%mylist%) do (
  echo %%i
)

answered Sep 26 '16 at 15:10

DanielG

thanks but is it possible without making a batch file ? – george Sep 26 '16 at 15:13
@george Just do `for %x in (%list%) do echo %x`. Use a single `%` for the loop variable outside of a batch file. – Ross Ridge Sep 26 '16 at 16:12
Using the loop variable is quite hard in `()` if you want to do anything fancy. [Here](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13805187/how-to-set-a-variable-inside-a-loop-for-f) it tells how to actually make use of the value: Use `call :WhatToDo %%i`. – Quirin F. Schroll Jul 21 '23 at 10:35

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 26 '16 at 15:12

0

The FOR command is mostly used to process files, but you can also process a text string:

FOR %X IN ("1" "2" "3") DO Echo %X

answered Sep 26 '16 at 15:12

P.Bra

X was unexpected at this time. – louigi600 Apr 27 '23 at 08:42
C:\Users\t0255498>FOR %X IN ("1" "2" "3") DO Echo %X C:\Users\t0255498>Echo "1" "1" C:\Users\t0255498>Echo "2" "2" C:\Users\t0255498>Echo "3" "3" C:\Users\t0255498> – louigi600 Aug 09 '23 at 08:29

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 24 '16 at 21:20

0

PowerShell:

1,2,4,8,4,1,5 | ForEach-Object { $_ }

PowerShell has built-in support for lists and has a far more consistent syntax than cmd.exe. I would recommend giving it a try.

answered Oct 24 '16 at 21:20

Bill_Stewart

3 Answers3