batch-file Variables in Batch Files Operations on Variables

Example

set var=10
set /a var=%var%+10
echo %var%

The final value of var is 20.

The second line is not working within a command block used for example on an IF condition or on a FOR loop as delayed expansion would be needed instead of standard environment variable expansion.

Here is another, better way working also in a command block:

set var=10
set /A var+=10
echo %var%

The command prompt environment supports with signed 32-bit integer values:

• addition + and +=
• subtraction - and -=
• multiplication * and *=
• division / and /=
• modulus division % and %=
• bitwise AND &
• bitwise OR |
• bitwise NOT ~
• bitwise XOR ^
• bitwise left shift <<
• bitwise right shift >>
• logical NOT !
• unary minus -
• grouping with ( and )

The Windows command interpreter does not support 64-bit integer values or floating point values in arithmetic expressions.

Note: The operator % must be written in a batch file as %% to be interpreted as operator.

In a command prompt window executing the command line set /A Value=8 % 3 assigns the value 2 to environment variable Value and additionally outputs 2.

In a batch file must be written set /A Value=8 %% 3 to assign the value 2 to environment variable Value and nothing is output respectively written to handle STDOUT (standard output). A line set /A Value=8 % 3 in a batch file would result in error message Missing operator on execution of the batch file.

The environment requires the switch /A for arithmetic operations only, not for ordinary string variables.

Every string in the arithmetic expression after set /A being whether a number nor an operator is automatically interpreted as name of an environment variable.

For that reason referencing the value of a variable with %variable% or with !variable! is not necessary when the variable name consists only of word characters (0-9A-Za-z_) with first character not being a digit which is especially helpful within a command block starting with ( and ending with a matching ).

Numbers are converted from string to integer with C/C++ function strtol with base being zero which means automatic base determination which can easily result in unexpected results.

Example:

set Divided=11
set Divisor=3

set /A Quotient=Divided / Divisor
set /A Remainder=Divided %% Divisor

echo %Divided% / %Divisor% = %Quotient%
echo %Divided% %% %Divisor% = %Remainder%

set HexValue1=0x14
set HexValue2=0x0A
set /A Result=(HexValue1 + HexValue2) * -3

echo (%HexValue1% + %HexValue2%) * -3 = (20 + 10) * -3 = %Result%

set /A Result%%=7
echo -90 %%= 7 = %Result%

set OctalValue=020
set DecimalValue=12
set /A Result=OctalValue - DecimalValue

echo %OctalValue% - %DecimalValue% = 16 - 12 = %Result%

The output of this example is:

11 / 3 = 3
11 % 3 = 2
(0x14 + 0x0A) * -3 = (20 + 10) * -3 = -90
-90 %= 7 = -6
020 - 12 = 16 - 12 = 4

Variables not defined on evaluation of the arithmetic expression are substituted with value 0.