DOS Choice

DOS Choice

An external command starting with DOS 6 that is used to provide user interaction in a batch file. It lets you ask a question and obtain a single character as an answer.

For example, if you create a batch file to do three things, you can use Choice to ask which one. Examine the following:

       choice /c:abc  /n  Do you want A, B or C?
       if errorlevel 3 goto thingc
       if errorlevel 2 goto thingb
       "do thing A here"

       :thingb
       "do thing B here"

       :thingc
       "do thing C here"

The choices follow the /c: switch. The answers are stored in the error level (A in 1, B in 2, etc.), which is then tested. If any other character is entered, the computer beeps and waits.

The /n suppresses the message that would be displayed following your prompt. In the above case, it would be [A,B,C]?

Note that the error levels must be tested from high to low order. The CHOICE.COM file provides this functionality.