.bat If Then Statement

Question

I need help with writing a batch script for

if file newfile.txt exists
then  del "InDesignData.txt"
ren "newfile.txt" "InDesignData.txt"

Thanks in advance,
Joe

Answer 1

if not exist newfile.txt goto skip
del "InDesignData.txt"
ren "newfile.txt" "InDesignData.txt"
:skip

Answer 2

You can use simple curved brackets (also supporting else!)

@echo off
IF EXIST newfile.txt (
del "InDesignData.txt"
ren "newfile.txt" "InDesignData.txt"
)

With else:

@echo off
IF EXIST newfile.txt (
del "InDesignData.txt"
ren "newfile.txt" "InDesignData.txt"
) else (
echo Making tea
)

Answer 3

Hi Joe,

One way you can do this is to is to have if statements and labels for both error and success and use ECHO to debug it... my example here has to do with directories, but surely you can adapt for you file deletion/creation needs:

    ECHO Cleaning up folders...
    if exist %myDir% goto deleteFolder
    goto createNewDir

    :deleteFolder
    echo Deleting %myDir%
    RMDIR %myDir% /S /Q
    IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Error


    :createNewDir
    mkdir %myDir%
    IF ERRORLEVEL 1 GOTO Error
    goto Done

    :error
    echo something went wrong
    goto End

   :Done
    echo Success!

   :End

HTH, EB