Tips on Creating Batch Files

The PATH variable can be set in two ways:

SET PATH=c:\bat;c:\dos

or:

PATH c:\bat;c:\dos

In the first case, using SET, the PATH variable is set to c:\bat;c:\dos, in lower case, as specified.
In the second case, using PATH, the PATH variable is set to C:\BAT;C:\DOS, in upper case, no matter how it was specified.

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN %cd% and %~dp0

%cd% is available either to a batch file or at the command prompt and expands to the drive letter and path of the current directory (which can change e.g. by using the CD command)

%~dp0 is only available within a batch file and expands to the drive letter and path in which that batch file is located (which cannot change). It is obtained from %0 which is the batch file's name.

An experiment like the following shows the difference

Here is D:\dirshow.bat:

Code:

@echo off
echo this is %%cd%%  %cd%
echo this is %%~dp0 %~dp0

Run it from C:\ and this is what you see

Code:

C:\>D:\dirshow.bat
this is %cd%  C:\
this is %~dp0 D:\