In Windows NT and Windows 2000, the default behavior in the CMD command processor is to evaluate an environment variable once
per statement execution.
To demonstrate this behavior, assume the root of your D: drive has 3 files:
File1.txt
File2.txt
File3.txt
If you run a batch script containing:
set LIST=
for %%i in (*) do set LIST=%LIST% %%i
echo %LIST%
You would see the following:
D:\>set LIST=
D:\>for %i in (*) do set LIST= %i
D:\>set LIST= File1.txt
D:\>set LIST= File2.txt
D:\>set LIST= File3.txt
D:\>echo File3.txt
D:\> File3.txt
You can see from this example that the LIST variable is expanded just once when the FOR
statement is executed. Since LIST was empty, only the last file found is set into the variable.
Windows 2000 supports delayed environment variable expansion. You must enable delayed environment variable expansion
for the CMD session by using the CMD /V:ON switch, or by issuing a setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION command.
With delayed environment variable expansion enabled, you can use the ! instead of the %,
as follows:
set LIST=
for %%i in (*) do set LIST=!LIST! %%i
echo %LIST%
This yields the following output:
D:\>set LIST=
D:\>for %i in (*) do set LIST=!LIST! %i
D:\>set LIST=!LIST! File1.txt
D:\>set LIST=!LIST! File2.txt
D:\>set LIST=!LIST! File3.txt
D:\>echo File1.txt File2.txt File3.txt
D:\> File1.txt File2.txt File3.txt
You can have delayed environment variable expansion enabled by default, if you
use Regedt32 to navigate to either of the following
keys:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Command Processor
On the
Edit menu,
Add Value name
DelayedExpansion, as a
REG_DWORD data type. A data value of
1 enables
delayed environment variable expansion and a data value of
0 disables it. Invoking the
/V:ON or
/V:OFF
switch on CMD.EXE and/or using the
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION command, overrides the registry setting for the
CMD session.