Just Another Comment Format

[Meerkat]

Since this is DosTips, I think (almost) everything Batch/DOS is already discovered.
BTW, I will still post...

Code: Select all

@echo off

)| This is a comment...
)| Format: Close parenthesis, then pipe, then the comment...
)| So this will be commented.

echo HelloWorld!!!
pause

Output

Code: Select all

HelloWorld!!!
Press any key to continue . . .

Meerkat

[Squashman]

Will fail inside a code block.

[OperatorGK]

You don't need pipe here.

[Meerkat]

Will fail inside a code block.

Yeah, I know...

You don't need pipe here.

I 'm sorry I do not understand, what do you mean?

Meerkat

[foxidrive]

The pipes aren't needed. It's an interesting discovery though.

Code: Select all

@echo off

) This is a comment...
) Format: Close parenthesis, then pipe, then the comment...
) So this will be commented.

echo HelloWorld!!!
pause

[Meerkat]

Oh... yeah....

...just adding

Code: Select all

@echo off

) This is a comment...
)|This is a comment...
)<This is a comment...
)&This is a comment...
)>This is a comment...
)(This is a comment...


echo HelloWorld!!!
pause

Output:

Code: Select all

HelloWorld!!!
Press any key to continue . . .

Meerkat

[npocmaka_]

interesting and could be confusing at some situations : http://ss64.com/nt/goto.html

though these are not working:

Code: Select all

))
)"
):

Other standard delimiters also can be used:

Code: Select all

)=
);
),

[Aacini]

interesting and could be confusing at some situations : http://ss64.com/nt/goto.html

That is a confusing example not just because the output, but because the way that it is generated:

Code: Select all

@echo off
if A equ A (
        GOTO :EXAMPLE_LABEL
        :EXAMPLE_LABEL
    rem
) else (
    echo You didn't expected to see this,did you?
) 

The GOTO command break the IF and start to search for the label from the next parsed block of code, that is the code placed after the IF! The label is not found and it is searched again from the beginning of the file. When the label is reached, the execution continue with no code block pending, so the ") else (" is just ignored and the next ECHO executed. I like this!!!

I posted a similar convoluted example in SO, but it is related to duplicate labels:

Code: Select all

@echo off

set var=1
if %var% equ 1 (

:NEXT
   if %var% neq 1 goto NEXT
   echo This appear first time:  var=%var%
   set var=2
   goto NEXT

:NEXT
   echo This appear second time: var=%var%

)

Antonio

[dbenham]

Yep... At StackOverflow I have another example to add to the collection: (Windows batch) Goto within if block behaves very strangely.

My answer talks about how ) can function as a comment if there is not an active (


Dave Benham