Windows batch: echo without new line

Question

Using set and the /p parameter you can echo without newline:

C:\> echo Hello World
Hello World

C:\> echo|set /p="Hello World"
Hello World
C:\>

Source

Using: echo | set /p= or <NUL set /p= will both work to suppress the newline.

However, this can be very dangerous when writing more advanced scripts when checking the ERRORLEVEL becomes important as setting set /p= without specifying a variable name will set the ERRORLEVEL to 1.

A better approach would be to just use a dummy variable name like so:
echo | set /p dummyName=Hello World

This will produce exactly what you want without any sneaky stuff going on in the background as I had to find out the hard way, but this only works with the piped version; <NUL set /p dummyName=Hello will still raise the ERRORLEVEL to 1.

The simple SET /P method has limitations that vary slightly between Windows versions.

• Leading quotes may be stripped

• Leading white space may be stripped

• Leading = causes a syntax error.

See http://www.dostips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4209 for more information.

jeb posted a clever solution that solves most of the problems at Output text without linefeed, even with leading space or = I've refined the method so that it can safely print absolutely any valid batch string without the new line, on any version of Windows from XP onward. Note that the :writeInitialize method contains a string literal that may not post well to the site. A remark is included that describes what the character sequence should be.

The :write and :writeVar methods are optimized such that only strings containing troublesome leading characters are written using my modified version of jeb's COPY method. Non-troublesome strings are written using the simpler and faster SET /P method.

@echo off
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion
call :writeInitialize
call :write "=hello"
call :write " world!%$write.sub%OK!"
echo(
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set lf=^


set "str= hello!lf!world^!!!$write.sub!hello!lf!world"
echo(
echo str=!str!
echo(
call :write "str="
call :writeVar str
echo(
exit /b

:write  Str
::
:: Write the literal string Str to stdout without a terminating
:: carriage return or line feed. Enclosing quotes are stripped.
::
:: This routine works by calling :writeVar
::
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion
set "str=%~1"
call :writeVar str
exit /b


:writeVar  StrVar
::
:: Writes the value of variable StrVar to stdout without a terminating
:: carriage return or line feed.
::
:: The routine relies on variables defined by :writeInitialize. If the
:: variables are not yet defined, then it calls :writeInitialize to
:: temporarily define them. Performance can be improved by explicitly
:: calling :writeInitialize once before the first call to :writeVar
::
if not defined %~1 exit /b
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
if not defined $write.sub call :writeInitialize
set $write.special=1
if "!%~1:~0,1!" equ "^!" set "$write.special="
for /f delims^=^ eol^= %%A in ("!%~1:~0,1!") do (
  if "%%A" neq "=" if "!$write.problemChars:%%A=!" equ "!$write.problemChars!" set "$write.special="
)
if not defined $write.special (
  <nul set /p "=!%~1!"
  exit /b
)
>"%$write.temp%_1.txt" (echo !str!!$write.sub!)
copy "%$write.temp%_1.txt" /a "%$write.temp%_2.txt" /b >nul
type "%$write.temp%_2.txt"
del "%$write.temp%_1.txt" "%$write.temp%_2.txt"
set "str2=!str:*%$write.sub%=%$write.sub%!"
if "!str2!" neq "!str!" <nul set /p "=!str2!"
exit /b


:writeInitialize
::
:: Defines 3 variables needed by the :write and :writeVar routines
::
::   $write.temp - specifies a base path for temporary files
::
::   $write.sub  - contains the SUB character, also known as <CTRL-Z> or 0x1A
::
::   $write.problemChars - list of characters that cause problems for SET /P
::      <carriageReturn> <formFeed> <space> <tab> <0xFF> <equal> <quote>
::      Note that <lineFeed> and <equal> also causes problems, but are handled elsewhere
::
set "$write.temp=%temp%\writeTemp%random%"
copy nul "%$write.temp%.txt" /a >nul
for /f "usebackq" %%A in ("%$write.temp%.txt") do set "$write.sub=%%A"
del "%$write.temp%.txt"
for /f %%A in ('copy /z "%~f0" nul') do for /f %%B in ('cls') do (
  set "$write.problemChars=%%A%%B    ""
  REM the characters after %%B above should be <space> <tab> <0xFF>
)
exit /b

As an addendum to @xmechanix's answer, I noticed through writing the contents to a file:

echo | set /p dummyName=Hello World > somefile.txt

That this will add an extra space at the end of the printed string, which can be inconvenient, specially since we're trying to avoid adding a new line (another whitespace character) to the end of the string.

Fortunately, quoting the string to be printed, i.e. using:

echo | set /p dummyName="Hello World" > somefile.txt

Will print the string without any newline or space character at the end.

A solution for the stripped white space in SET /P:

the trick is that backspace char which you can summon in the text editor EDIT for DOS. To create it in EDIT press ctrlP+ctrlH. I would paste it here but this webpage can't display it. It's visible on Notepad though (it's werid, like a small black rectangle with a white circle in the center)

So you write this:

<nul set /p=.9    Hello everyone

The dot can be any char, it's only there to tell SET /P that the text starts there, before the spaces, and not at the "Hello". The "9" is a representation of the backspace char that I can't display here. You have to put it instead of the 9, and it will delete the "." , after which you'll get this:

    Hello Everyone

instead of:

Hello Everyone

I hope it helps