.cmd and .bat file converting return code to an error message

Question

I'm trying to automate a program I made with a test suite via a .cmd file.

I can get the program that I ran's return code via %errorlevel%.

My program has certain return codes for each type of error.

For example:

1 - means failed for such and such a reason

2 - means failed for some other reason

...

echo FAILED: Test case failed, error level: %errorlevel% >> TestSuite1Log.txt

Instead I'd like to somehow say:

echo FAILED: Test case failed, error reason: lookupError(%errorlevel%) >> TestSuite1Log.txt

Is this possible with a .bat file? Or do I have to move to a scripting language like python/perl?

Answer 1

Not exactly like that, with a subroutine, but you can either populate the a variable with the text using a goto workaround.

It may be easier if this test suite of yours grows quite a bit to use a more powerful language. Perl or even Windows Scripting Host can help you there.

Answer 2

Yes you can use call. Just on a new line have call, and pas the errorcode. This should work, but i have not tested.

C:\Users\matt.MATTLANT>help call
Calls one batch program from another.

CALL [drive:][path]filename [batch-parameters]

  batch-parameters   Specifies any command-line information required by the
                     batch program.

SEDIT: orry i may have misunderstood a bit, but you can use IF also

Answer 3

Test your values in reverse order and use the overloaded behaviour of IF:

@echo off
myApp.exe
if errorlevel 2 goto Do2
if errorlevel 1 goto do1
echo Success
goto End

:Do2
echo Something when 2 returned
goto End

:Do1
echo Something when 1 returned
goto End

:End

If you want to be more powerful, you could try something like this (you'd need to replace the %1 with %errorlevel but it's harder to test for me). You would need to put a label for each error level you deal with:

@echo off
echo passed %1
goto Label%1

:Label
echo not matched!
goto end

:Label1
echo One
goto end

:Label2
echo Two
goto end

:end

Here is a test:

C:\>test
passed
not matched!

C:\>test 9
passed 9
The system cannot find the batch label specified - Label9

C:\>test 1
passed 1
One

C:\>test 2
passed 2
Two

Answer 4

You can use the 'IF ERRORLEVEL' statement to do different things based on the return code.

See:

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/errorlevel.html

In response to your second question, I would move to using a scripting language anyway, since Windows batch files are inherently so limited. There are great Windows distributions for Perl, Python, Ruby, etc., so no reason not to use them, really. I personally love doing Perl scripting on Windows.

Answer 5

You can do something like the following code. Note that the error level comparisons should be in decreasing order due to a cmd quirk.

setlocal

rem Main script
call :LookupErrorReason %errorlevel%
echo FAILED Test case failed, error reason: %errorreason% >> TestSuite1Log.txt
goto :EndOfScript

rem Lookup subroutine
:LookupErrorReason
  if %%1 == 3 set errorreason=Some reason
  if %%1 == 2 set errorreason=Another reason
  if %%1 == 1 set errorreason=Third reason
goto :EndOfScript

:EndOfScript
endlocal

Answer 6

You can do this quite neatly with the ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION option. This allows you to use ! as variable marker that is evaluated after %.

REM Turn on Delayed Expansion
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

REM Define messages as variables with the ERRORLEVEL on the end of the name
SET MESSAGE0=Everything is fine
SET MESSAGE1=Failed for such and such a reason
SET MESSAGE2=Failed for some other reason

REM Set ERRORLEVEL - or run command here
SET ERRORLEVEL=2

REM Print the message corresponding to the ERRORLEVEL
ECHO !MESSAGE%ERRORLEVEL%!

Type HELP SETLOCAL and HELP SET at a command prompt for more information on delayed expansion.