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I am having an issue with a section of code designed to count the number of times a string appears in a text file. It will work perfectly when pasted into command prompt, but when run as a .bat file it immediately closes before completing (It doesn't perform the pause before the last echo command).

set Logpath="C:\Users\bob\Desktop\project\a.txt"
set StringToLookFor="asdf"

set NUM=0
for /F %N in ('find /C %StringToLookFor% ^< %Logpath%') do set NUM=%N
pause
echo %NUM%
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  • Since you say "immediately closes" i assume you are double clicking the .bat file. You can try to run it on the command prompt, or adding cmd /k to the top of the bat file to keep the terminal open after you dbl click it (or do the link+do not close option). This will show you the error... it might be failing before the pause. – Gabriel Jul 30 '20 at 23:34
  • When I do that it returns the expected result with no error. – lucasr48 Jul 30 '20 at 23:42
  • 😅 i confess i am not a proficient windows user. I only know a few tricks, and I am happy on linux where things are a little more predictable. But happy that works now. Good lucky figuring out why though... – Gabriel Jul 30 '20 at 23:46
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adding a second % before N apparently fixed it.

set Logpath="C:\Users\bob\Desktop\project\a.txt"
set StringToLookFor="asdf"

set NUM=0
for /F %%N in ('find /C %StringToLookFor% ^< %Logpath%') do set NUM=%%N
pause
echo %NUM%
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  • 1
    This is the solution. Use % when in CMD and %% when writing a batch file. – GChuf Jul 31 '20 at 8:23
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If you need it to pause for a specific amount of time, how about using timeout?

timeout /t 5
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