When I run this batch file from a command-prompt, I get this error:
The syntax of the command is incorrect.
It's to do with my IF statement, but as far as I can tell my syntax is correct - including ensuring I have the necessary whitespace around the parenthesis:
SET foo=bar
:: test
IF "%foo%" EQU "bar" (
:: foo
ECHO "equal to"
) ELSE (
:: bar
ECHO "not equal to"
)
The problem is your use of labels for remarks (::).
:: can only be safely used for remarks outside of blocks. Inside blocks it'll try to execute the next line as it assumes the label is followed by a command.
The blank line after the label-remark causes the error.
You can remove the blank line to remove the error. In this case the parser assumes the label and the echo command are the command to execute.
Try this:
SET foo=bar
:: test
IF "%foo%" EQU "bar" (
:: foo
ECHO "equal to"
) ELSE (
:: bar
ECHO "not equal to"
)
A safer option is to use the real remark command:
SET foo=bar
rem test
IF "%foo%" EQU "bar" (
rem foo
ECHO "equal to"
) ELSE (
rem bar
ECHO "not equal to"
)
See more at http://ss64.com/nt/rem.html
try like this:
SET foo=bar
:: test
IF "%foo%" EQU "bar" (
rem foo
ECHO "equal to"
) ELSE (
rem bar
ECHO "not equal to"
)
or like this:
SET foo=bar
:: test
IF "%foo%" EQU "bar" (
::foo
ECHO "equal to"
) ELSE (
::bar
ECHO "not equal to"
)
this is a bug in the cmd.exe. Labels (in this case :: treated like a label ) does not work good in brackets context. After a label a command is expected but not an empty line
