In Windows cmd, how do I prompt for user input and use the result in another command?

I have a Windows .bat file which I would like to accept user input and then use the results of that input as part of the call to additional commands.

For example, I'd like to accept a process ID from the user, and then run jstack against that ID, putting the results of the jstack call into a file. However, when I try this, it doesn't work.

Here's my sample bat file contents:

@echo off
set /p id=Enter ID: 
echo %id%
jstack > jstack.txt

and here's what shows up in jstack.txt:

Enter ID: Terminate batch job (Y/N)?

Try this:

@echo off
set /p id="Enter ID: "

You can then use %id% as a parameter to another batch file like jstack %id%.

For example:

set /P id=Enter id: 
jstack %id% > jstack.txt

The syntax is as such: set /p variable=[string]

Check out http://commandwindows.com/batch.htm or http://www.robvanderwoude.com/userinput.php for a more deep dive into user input with the different versions of Windows OS batch files.

Once you have set your variable, you can then go about using it in the following fashion.

@echo off
set /p UserInputPath=What Directory would you like?
cd C:\%UserInputPath%

note the %VariableName% syntax

set /p choice= "Please Select one of the above options :" 
echo '%choice%'

The space after = is very important.

I am not sure if this is the case for all versions of Windows, however on the XP machine I have, I need to use the following:

set /p Var1="Prompt String"

Without the prompt string in quotes, I get various results depending on the text.

@echo off
set /p input="Write something, it will be used in the command "echo""
echo %input%
pause

if i get what you want, this works fine. you can use %input% in other commands too.

@echo off
echo Write something, it will be used in the command "echo"
set /p input=""
cls
echo %input%
pause 

There is no documented /prompt parameter for SETX as there is for SET.

If you need to prompt for an environment variable that will survive reboots, you can use SETX to store it.

A variable created by SETX won't be usable until you restart the command prompt. Neatly, however, you can SETX a variable that has already been SET, even if it has the same name.

This works for me in Windows 8.1 Pro:

set /p UserInfo= "What is your name?  "
setx UserInfo "%UserInfo%"

(The quotation marks around the existing variable are necessary.)

This procedure allows you to use the temporary SET-created variable during the current session and will allow you to reuse the SETX-created variable upon reboot of the computer or restart of the CMD prompt.

(Edited to format code paragraphs properly.)

@echo off
:start
set /p var1="Enter first number: "
pause

There are two possibilities.

1. You forgot to put the %id% in the jstack call.

    jstack %id% > jstack.txt
   

So the whole correct batch file should be:

@echo off
set /p id=Enter ID: 
echo %id%
jstack %id% > jstack.txt

And/Or 2. You did put it in the code (and forgot to tell us in the question) but when you ran the batch file you hit the Enter key instead of typing an ID (say 1234).

What's happening is the result of these two mistakes: jstack is supposed to be called with the id that you supply it.

But in your case (according to the code you supplied in the question) you called it without any variable. You wrote:

jstack > jstack.txt

So when you run jstack with no variable it outputs the following:

Terminate batch file Y/N? 

Your second mistake is that you pressed Enter instead of giving a value when the program asked you: Enter ID: . If you would have put in an ID at this point, say 1234, the %id% variable would become that value, in our case 1234. But you did NOT supply a value and instead pressed Enter. When you don't give the variable any value, and if that variable was not set to anything else before, then the variable %id% is set to the prompt of the set command!! So now %id% is set to Enter ID: which was echoed on your screen as requested in the batch file BEFORE you called the jstack.

But I suspect you DID have the jstack %id% > jstack.txt in your batch file code with the %id (and omitted it by mistake from the question), and that you hit enter without typing in an id. The batch program then echoed the id, which is now "Enter ID:", and then ran jstack Enter ID: > jstack.txt

Jstack itself echoed the input, encountered a mistake and asked to terminate.
And all this was written into the jstack.txt file.

You can try also with userInput.bat which uses the html input element.

This will assign the input to the value jstackId:

call userInput.bat jstackId
echo %jstackId%

This will just print the input value which eventually you can capture with FOR /F :

call userInput.bat

I have a little cmd I use when preparing pc to clients: it calls the user for input, and the rename the pc to that.

@ECHO "remember to run this as admin."
@ECHO OFF
SET /P _inputname= Please enter an computername:
@ECHO Du intastede "%_inputname%"
@ECHO "The pc will restart after this"
pause
@ECHO OFF
wmic computersystem where name="%COMPUTERNAME%" call rename name="%_inputname%"

shutdown -r -f

Dollar signs around the variable do not work on my Vista machine, but percent signs do. Also note that a trailing space on the "set" line will show up between the prompt and user input.

Just added the

set /p NetworkLocation= Enter name for network?

echo %NetworkLocation% >> netlist.txt

sequence to my netsh batch job. It now shows me the location I respond as the point for that sample. I continuously >> the output file so I know now "home", "work", "Starbucks", etc. Looking for clear air, I can eavulate the lowest use channels and whether there are 5 or just all 2.4 MHz WLANs around.

Just to keep a default value of the variable. Press Enter to use default from the recent run of your .bat:

@echo off
set /p Var1=<Var1.txt
set /p Var1="Enter new value ("%Var1%") "
echo %Var1%> Var1.txt

rem YourApp %Var1%

In the first run just ignore the message about lack of file with the initial value of the variable (or do create the Var1.txt manually).

One other way which might be interesting. You can call a powershell script from where you can do pretty much anything, and send the data bach to cmd or do other stuff with something like this.

set var=myvar; 
call "c:\input2.cmd" %var%. 

Its kind of more flexible (You can send the data the same way with powershell).

So in your cmd, write this considering the ps script is in C::

PowerShell.exe -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -Command "& {. C:\Input.ps1}"

And in your input.ps1 script, write this:

$var = Read-Host -Prompt "Your input"
Write-Host "Your var:",$var
#Do stuff with your variable