Important Notice

The pages on this site contain documentation for very old MS-DOS software, purely for historical purposes. If you're looking for up-to-date documentation, particularly for programming, you should not rely on the information found here, as it will be woefully out of date.

◄Syntax►  ◄Note►
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                              CHOICE──Examples
 
What the user sees when you use CHOICE in a batch file
 
If you use the following syntax in a batch file,
 
    choice /c:ync
 
the user sees the following when CHOICE is started:
 
    [Y,N,C]?
 
If you add text to the syntax,
 
    choice /c:ync Yes, No, or Continue
 
the user sees the following when CHOICE is started:
 
    Yes, No, or Continue [Y,N,C]?
 
What the user sees if you leave out a prompt
 
If, as in the following example, you use the /N switch to leave out the
prompt in a batch program,
 
    choice /n Yes, No, or Continue?
 
the user sees only the text you specified when CHOICE is started:
 
    Yes, No, or Continue?
 
What the user sees if you use the T switch
 
If you use the following syntax in a batch program,
 
    choice /c:ync /t:n,5
 
the user sees the following when CHOICE is started:
 
    [Y,N,C]?
 
If, after 5 seconds, the user hasn't pressed a key, CHOICE chooses N and
returns an ERRORLEVEL value of 2. If the user presses a key before 5
seconds, CHOICE returns the value corresponding to the user's choice.
 
To have the option of defragmenting drive C when you start your computer,
you could add the following lines to your AUTOEXEC.BAT file:
 
    choice Defrag drive /ty,5
    if errorlevel 2 goto SkipDefrag
    defrag c:
    :SkipDefrag
 
If you press N within 5 seconds, DEFRAG will not run and CHOICE returns an
ERRORLEVEL value of 2. If you do not press N within 5 seconds, or if you
choose Y, DEFRAG is run on drive C.
 
Using CHOICE in a batch program
 
The following batch program demonstrates using the CHOICE option to select
one of three programs: MS-DOS Editor, Microsoft Anti-Virus, or Microsoft
Backup.
 
Notice that the IF ERRORLEVEL statements are listed in decreasing order.
MS-DOS will consider the IF statement true if the ERRORLEVEL parameter
returned by CHOICE is greater than or equal to the parameter specified in
the IF command.
 
    @echo off
    cls
    echo.
    echo A   Microsoft Editor
    echo B   Microsoft Anti-Virus
    echo C   Microsoft Backup
    echo.
    choice /c:abc Choose an option
    if errorlevel 3 goto MSBackup
    if errorlevel 2 goto Msav
    if errorlevel 1 goto Edit
 
    :Edit
    edit
    goto End
 
    :Msav
    msav
    goto End
 
    :Msbackup
    msbackup
    goto End
 
    :End
 
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