How to find count of lines present in a file using batch script

batchcommand line

I want to count the number of lines in a file using batch.

I have gone through this, but couldn't understand as I am a beginner. I have written my own piece of code with basic knowledge.

@echo off
set "file=abc.csv"
set /a x=0
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%p in ("%file%") do (
  echo %x%
  pause>nul
  set /a x=%x%+1
)

When I run the above code I am getting 0 as output. Can someone please help me in sorting out the error?

Best Answer

I want to count the number of lines in a file using batch

Specific solution

From a command line:

F:\test>for /f "usebackq" %b in (`type abc.csv ^| find "" /v /c`) do @echo line count is %b
line count is 1

From a batch file (countlines.cmd):

@echo off
Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
  for /f "usebackq" %%b in (`type abc.csv ^| find "" /v /c`) do (
    echo line count is %%b
    )
  )

Example:

F:\test>countlines
line count is 1
F:\test>

Flexible solution

Use the following batch file (countlines.cmd):

@echo off
Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /f "usebackq" %%a in (`dir /b /s %1`)  do (
  echo processing file %%a
  for /f "usebackq" %%b in (`type %%a ^| find "" /v /c`) do (
    echo line count is %%b
    set /a lines += %%b
    )
  )
echo total lines is %lines%

Notes:

Total number of lines is stored in %lines%.
Batch file supports wildcards.
Tweak echo ... commands as appropriate.

Usage:

countlines filename_expression

Example:

F:\test>countlines *.csv
processing file F:\test\abc.csv
line count is 1
processing file F:\test\def.csv
line count is 1
total lines is 2

An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line - An excellent reference for all things Windows cmd line related.
dir - Display a list of files and subfolders.
find - Search for a text string in a file & display all the lines where it is found.
for /f - Loop command against the results of another command.

Related Solutions

Windows – Batch File, PING, errorlevel and > null what do they do

I suspect that you've named your batch file ping.bat, which as explained here would be the source of your problem.

If this indeed is the case, what's happening is that ping isn't actually running the ping command, but ping.bat with those arguments - sending you into an infinite recursion that doesn't end until you break it.

That's why you see the command constantly iterating in Command Prompt without any output when you run the batch file, because it's not actually executing the ping command, but calling on itself with those very arguments, which then calls itself, which - well, you get the picture.

The > null part is a redirection; the > operator means that the program's output will be written to the following file rather than the console. The special file name nul (not null) is handled by Windows internally; anything you write there is simply discarded. This way a script can run a program and just check if it succeeded, without cluttering the console. (Similarly, < would redirect input from file.)

1> is the full form of > and it means "redirect the first file descriptor".

On Unix-like operating systems, a file descriptor is a number used by programs to reference files that the program currently holds open. By convention, file descriptors 0, 1, 2 correspond to "standard input" (stdin), "standard output" (stdout), and "standard error output" (stderr); all higher numbers correspond to files that the program itself has opened.
Windows differs from this in many ways – it uses "file handles" and doesn't number them 0-1-2-3... are just a few small differences. However, the cmd.exe script interpreter still understands 1> and 2> to mean redirection of regular output and error output specifically, to make things just a little bit easier for those coming from Linux or other Unix-likes.

As for the errorlevel, it is not a command, but a mode in the if command. Each program, upon exiting, returns a number called an "exit status" to the system (and to the parent program); by convention, 0 means success, and ≥1 means some sort of failure.

In cmd.exe, you can access the last command's exit status through the special %errorlevel% variable, for example:
```
if %errorlevel% NEQ 0 echo The previous command failed!
```
There is another syntax, coming from old Windows and MS-DOS versions that did not have the special variable; it checks if the exit status is equal to or greather than a given number:
```
if errorlevel 1 echo The previous command failed!
```

Count number of lines in file using batch

The batch file is working correctly. find won't count a line unless it has the Windows LFCR* symbols on the line. You need to change the text file to have the LFCR symbols at the end of each line.

*LFCR is Line Feed, Carriage Return.

How to find count of lines present in a file using batch script

Best Answer

I want to count the number of lines in a file using batch

Further Reading

Related Question