Search notes:
cmd.exe - shift
simple example
setlocal enableExtensions
@echo param 1 = %1
@echo param 2 = %2
@echo param 3 = %3
@echo now shifting parameters by one
@shift
@echo param 1 = %1
@echo param 2 = %2
@echo param 3 = %3
@echo now shifting parameters by one
@shift
@echo param 1 = %1
@echo param 2 = %2
@echo param 3 = %3
When called like so…
C:\> shiftParams one two three four five six seven eight nine
param 1 = one
param 2 = two
param 3 = three
now shifting parameters by one
param 1 = two
param 2 = three
param 3 = four
now shifting parameters by one
param 1 = three
param 2 = four
param 3 = five
shift and %*
%* is not affected by a shift.
@echo off
echo %%* = %*
echo %%1 = %1
echo Shifting...
echo %%* = %*
echo %%1 = %1
If this script is invoked like so …
C:\> shift-star.bat one two three
… it prints
%* = one two three
%1 = one
Shifting...
%* = one two three
%1 = one
Using shift within parentheses
The effect of shift within parentheses is delayed to «outside» the parentheses. This can be demonstrated with the following batch file:
@echo off
setlocal
@if [%1] == [-x] (
shift
echo %%1=%1
set inside=%1
)
set outside=%1
echo inside=%inside%
echo outside=%outside%
If executed with the parameters -x foo, it assigns -x to %inside% (because the effect of shift is not immediate), but assigns foo to %outside% (because the effect has now taken place):
C:\> paranthesis.bat -x foo
%1=-x
inside=-x
outside=foo
shift /n n
The documentation says that, with enabled
command extesions , the
shift command can be given a number of positions to shift, for example
shift /N 3.
However, I could not confirm that and received a Invalid parameter to SHIFT command error message.