While Loop in Batch

Elena Rostova
Elena Rostova
• • 9 min read

Here Is What I Want, Inside the Backupdir, I Want to Execute Cscript /Nologo C: \Deletefile. Vbs %Backupdir% Until Number of Files Inside the Folder Is Greater...

While Loop in Batch

Here is what I want, inside the BACKUPDIR, I want to execute cscript /nologo c:\deletefile.vbs %BACKUPDIR% until number of files inside the folder is greater than 21(countfiles holds it). Here is my code:

@echo off
SET BACKUPDIR=C:\test
for /f %%x in ('dir %BACKUPDIR% /b ^| find /v /c "::"') do set countfiles=%%x

for %countfiles% GTR 21 (
cscript /nologo c:\deletefile.vbs %BACKUPDIR%
set /a countfiles-=%countfiles%
)
1

5 Answers 

set /a countfiles-=%countfiles%

This will set countfiles to 0. I think you want to decrease it by 1, so use this instead:

set /a countfiles-=1

I'm not sure if the for loop will work, better try something like this:

:loop
cscript /nologo c:\deletefile.vbs %BACKUPDIR%
set /a countfiles-=1
if %countfiles% GTR 21 goto loop
0

A while loop can be simulated in cmd.exe with:

:still_more_files
    if %countfiles% leq 21 (
        rem change countfile here
        goto :still_more_files
    )

For example, the following script:

    @echo off
    setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
    set /a "x = 0"

:more_to_process
    if %x% leq 5 (
        echo %x%
        set /a "x = x + 1"
        goto :more_to_process
    )

    endlocal

outputs:

0
1
2
3
4
5

For your particular case, I would start with the following. Your initial description was a little confusing. I'm assuming you want to delete files in that directory until there's 20 or less:

    @echo off
    set backupdir=c:\test

:more_files_to_process
    for /f %%x in ('dir %backupdir% /b ^| find /v /c "::"') do set num=%%x
    if %num% gtr 20 (
        cscript /nologo c:\deletefile.vbs %backupdir%
        goto :more_files_to_process
    )
6

Must Read

I have a trick for doing this!

I came up with this method because while on the CLI, it's not possible to use the methods provided in the other answers here and it had always bugged me.

Elena Rostova

Elena Rostova

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Elena Rostova holds a Master's degree in Public Health Journalism. She covers groundbreaking medical research, holistic wellness trends, mental health awareness, and nutritional science.