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BAT file tips
Let's play with BAT files a little. As you may know, BAT files are intended to be run and processed by the MS command processor, named cmd.exe, and the programming language they are created with is very close to BASIC. The early versions of the BAT-files language (which comes from famous Windows ancestor, MS-DOS) were very limited. Nowadays it has more features and a few days ago I created a small collection of interesting tricks, related to BAT file programming. You can check the following examples that demonstrate which execution flow controlling statements BAT-file language has and show their analogs in PHP.
Simple IF statement that checks whether the VAR variable contains 1 and, if so, prints the message "VAR is 1":
| BAT-file: | PHP: |
SET VAR=1 IF "1" == "%VAR%" ECHO VAR is 1 | $var = 1; if (1 == $var) echo 'VAR is 1'; |
Executing more then one command in IF true statement:
| BAT-file: | PHP: |
IF EXIST MYFILE.TXT ( DEL MYFILE.TXT ECHO File is deleted ) ELSE ( ECHO File does not exist ) | if (file_exist('MYFILE.TXT')) {
unlink('MYFILE.TXT');
echo 'File is deleted';
} else {
echo 'File does not exist';
}
|
Using switch-like construction instead of series of IF statements:
| BAT-file: | PHP: |
GOTO CASE_%I% :CASE_0 ECHO i equals 0 GOTO END_SWITCH :CASE_1 ECHO i equals 1 GOTO END_SWITCH :END_SWITCH | switch ($i) {
case 0:
echo "i equals 0";
break;
case 1:
echo "i equals 1";
break;
}
|
Defining and calling a procedure:
| BAT-file: | PHP: |
CALL :UNPACK_FILE MY_FILE.ZIP REM The GOTO :EOF separates the main REM program and procedures. GOTO :EOF REM Procedure UNPACK_FILE REM @param string %1 :UNPACK_FILE 7z.exe x %1 GOTO :EOF | unpackFile('MY_FILE.ZIP');
/**
* unpackFile function
* @param string $file
*/
function unpackFile($file) {
exec("7z.exe x $file");
}
|
Calling a procedure by the name:
| BAT-file: | PHP: |
SET PROCEDURE=UNPACK_FILE_7Z CALL :%PROCEDURE% MY_FILE.ZIP | $procedure = 'unpackFile7z';
$procedure('MY_FILE.ZIP'); |
Modify variable by its name:
| BAT-file: | PHP: |
SET VARIABLE=VAR1 SET %VARIABLE%=TEST ECHO %VAR1% | $variable = 'var1'; $$variable = 'TEST' echo $var1; |
Save command result into variable (actually, it saves into the variable only the first line of the command result):
| BAT-file: | PHP: |
DIR > RESULT.TXT SET /P DIR_RESULT=< RESULT.TXT DEL RESULT.TXT | exec('DIR', $output);
$dirResult = $output[0]; |
String Replace:
| BAT-file: | PHP: |
SET MSG=Hello username! SET MSG=%MSG:username=Tom% ECHO %MSG% | $msg = 'Hello username!';
$msg = str_replace('username', 'Tom', $msg);
echo $msg; |
String Spit:
| BAT-file: | PHP: |
SET DATE=2007-08-23 CALL :SPLIT_DATE %DATE:-= % ECHO YEAR: %YEAR% ECHO MONTH: %MONTH% ECHO DAY: %DAY% GOTO :EOF :SPLIT_DATE SET YEAR=%1 SET MONTH=%2 SET DAY=%3 GOTO :EOF | $date = '2007-08-23';
list($year, $month, $day) = implode('-', $date);
echo 'Year :' . $year;
echo 'Month: ' . $month;
echo 'Day: ' . $day; |
Search for all text files with text TEMP and remove them:
for /f "delims=" %i in ('findstr /s /m zyx c:\*.bat') do @del "%i"See also about BAT files and Windows Shell:
- Microsoft Windows XP - Batch files in Windows XP Professional Product Documentation
- Windows PowerShell - new Microsoft Windows command line shell and scripting language, which seems to be a successor of the BAT files language.
Please note that all comments that look like "Thank you! This is exactly what I've looked for! You are THE GREAT! My site with flash games" will be immediately deleted without any compunction and your IP will be reported to mollom and added to the spamlists. Thank you for understanding.
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