batch file - counting number of files in folder and storing in a variable

Question

I am very new to this. Please help me

I was trying to write a batch file program to count number of files in a folder and assign that to a variable and display it to verify that it has been stored please help me with the syntax,

thank you in advance -VK

Answer 1

I'm going to assume you do not want to count hidden or system files.

There are many ways to do this. All of the methods that I will show involve some form of the FOR command. There are many variations of the FOR command that look almost the same, but they behave very differently. It can be confusing for a beginner.

You can get help by typing HELP FOR or FOR /? from the command line. But that help is a bit cryptic if you are not used to reading it.

1) The DIR command lists the number of files in the directory. You can pipe the results of DIR to FIND to get the relevant line and then use FOR /F to parse the desired value from the line. The problem with this technique is the string you search for has to change depending on the language used by the operating system.

@echo off
for /f %%A in ('dir ^| find "File(s)"') do set cnt=%%A
echo File count = %cnt%

2) You can use DIR /B /A-D-H-S to list the non-hidden/non-system files without other info, pipe the result to FIND to count the number of files, and use FOR /F to read the result.

@echo off
for /f %%A in ('dir /a-d-s-h /b ^| find /v /c ""') do set cnt=%%A
echo File count = %cnt%

3) You can use a simple FOR to enumerate all the files and SET /A to increment a counter for each file found.

@echo off
set cnt=0
for %%A in (*) do set /a cnt+=1
echo File count = %cnt%