I had believed that labels posed problems in loops and that the batch execution failed.

After some testing I find that a label only fails when the label is the last line of the do loop



) was unexpected at this time.


But this works to get the first line of the file and keeping the code within the parentheses.



This works too, with a double full-colon:




The same thing holds true with casual parentheses - this generates an error but adding a statement after the label allows it to work.



I had read someone say once that you can't have a label in a for in do loop and I didn't actually test it, but remembered what I had read.
It goes to show how dearly held beliefs are not always in fact totally true.

i thought that too after having the same error and didn't use the comment in the for command until short time, but there is another error happen when you add two comment lines after each other

Ex 1
This will work fine and display the ok five times, But

Adding another comment after the first will cause this error but will show the ok after each error

i have no idea why, but when using the REM command instead of :: it work fine

Edit,
just tested the code Ed Dyreen posted for multi line comment, it work under the for loop, if some one insist on using the :: to comment on multi lines but the same apply here can't use two sets of them:lol:


Important Note, when using the commant like that it seems that you can't leave empty line after it so
the last =% must be followed by the echo ok not like the example above "it won't work"
I don't know if that what Ed Dyreen meant in his comment or not

That's interesting behaviour. It's as if it is parsing :: like a: or c: drive letter.

you are actually right, i didn't notice that
but Ed Dyreen code solved the problem of the only one line without the need of typing rem each line i don't like the way it looks

Apart from the special rules that apply inside brackets it works
:: is a command that is executed. That's why it sometime fail, it need to be valid

You cannot leave an empty line after a double colon inside brackets, this can be solved by replacing the double colon by REM.
Inside brackets, it's more difficult to comment, the entire block needs to be valid.

ed

Tags: comment, comments, multiline, multi line, multi-line, inside brackets

From Stackoverflow: windows batch file with goto command not working

In parenthesis lables are "two line" oriented! I experimented with labels and this are some results for parenthesis.

If a label occours, the next line has to been the correct format for a "secondary" line.
The secondary line has to be a "normal" label or a command, but not an empty line nor a double lable "::"
The secondary line is parsed a bit different, so special characters will can take effects like & and |.

Some samples


There is one more strange effect with labels in parenthesis, they can consume the first token of a line.
Removing a token with an obscure trick


jeb

and this fails as you noted:



and this works.