How do you loop in a Windows batch file?

Question

If you want to do something x times, you can do this:

Example (x = 200):

FOR /L %%A IN (1,1,200) DO (
  ECHO %%A
)

1,1,200 means:

• Start = 1
• Increment per step = 1
• End = 200

FOR %%A IN (list) DO command parameters

list is a list of any elements, separated by either spaces, commas or semicolons.

command can be any internal or external command, batch file or even - in OS/2 and NT - a list of commands

parameters contains the command line parameters for command. In this example, command will be executed once for every element in list, using parameters if specified.

A special type of parameter (or even command) is %%A, which will be substituted by each element from list consecutively.

From FOR loops

Type:

for /?

and you will get several pages of help text.

Conditionally perform a command several times.

• syntax-FOR-Files

  FOR %%parameter IN (set) DO command 
  

• syntax-FOR-Files-Rooted at Path

  FOR /R [[drive:]path] %%parameter IN (set) DO command 
  

• syntax-FOR-Folders

  FOR /D %%parameter IN (folder_set) DO command 
  

• syntax-FOR-List of numbers

  FOR /L %%parameter IN (start,step,end) DO command 
  

• syntax-FOR-File contents

  FOR /F ["options"] %%parameter IN (filenameset) DO command 
  

  or

  FOR /F ["options"] %%parameter IN ("Text string to process") DO command
  

• syntax-FOR-Command Results

  FOR /F ["options"] %%parameter IN ('command to process') DO command
  

It

• Take a set of data
• Make a FOR Parameter %%G equal to some part of that data
• Perform a command (optionally using the parameter as part of the command).
• --> Repeat for each item of data

If you are using the FOR command at the command line rather than in a batch program, use just one percent sign: %G instead of %%G.

FOR Parameters

• The first parameter has to be defined using a single character, for example the letter G.

• FOR %%G IN ...

  In each iteration of a FOR loop, the IN ( ....) clause is evaluated and %%G set to a different value

  If this clause results in a single value then %%G is set equal to that value and the command is performed.

  If the clause results in a multiple values then extra parameters are implicitly defined to hold each. These are automatically assigned in alphabetical order %%H %%I %%J ...(implicit parameter definition)

  If the parameter refers to a file, then enhanced variable reference can be used to extract the filename/path/date/size.

  You can of course pick any letter of the alphabet other than %%G. but it is a good choice because it does not conflict with any of the pathname format letters (a, d, f, n, p, s, t, x) and provides the longest run of non-conflicting letters for use as implicit parameters.

FOR will give you any information you'll ever need to know about FOR loops, including examples on proper usage.

Try this code:

@echo off
color 02
set num1=0
set num2=1 
set terminator=5
:loop
set /a num1= %num1% + %num2%
if %num1%==%terminator% goto close
goto open
:close
echo %num1%
pause 
exit
:open
echo %num1%
goto loop

num1 is the number to be incremented and num2 is the value added to num1 and terminator is the value where the num1 will end. You can indicate different value for terminator in this statement (if %num1%==%terminator% goto close). This is the boolean expression goto close is the process if the boolean is true and goto open is the process if the boolean is false.