Multiple choices menu on batch file?

Question

Hi I want to make a batch file menu, that asks \'Select app you want to install?\' for example

1. App1
2. App2
3. App3
4. App4
5. App5

Answer 1

you may use choice.exe see here : http://ss64.com/nt/choice.html

Answer 2

This is a proposed analysis for improvement on David Ruhmann's code relating to the "Validate Input" section above:

Testing the menu for special characters works a charm except for the following characters "^&<". When each are submitted for input the program closes.

set "Input=%Input:"=%"
set "Input=%Input:^^=%"
set "Input=%Input:>=%"
set "Input=%Input:<=%"
set "Input=%Input:^&=%"
set "Input=%Input:|=%"
set "Input=%Input:(=%"
set "Input=%Input:)=%"
:: Equals are not allowed in variable names
set "Input=%Input:^==%"

Escaping the ^ and & works, but something very peculiar going on with the parsing of "<" and ">" (escaping these doesn't appear to work). If we reverse the order of the two statements as in the above amendment we find "<" works, but now ">" doesn't.

However, shifting the second statement with "<" down thus, both redirection characters work but now ")" doesn't!!

set "Input=%Input:"=%"
set "Input=%Input:^^=%"
set "Input=%Input:>=%"
set "Input=%Input:^&=%"
set "Input=%Input:|=%"
set "Input=%Input:(=%"
set "Input=%Input:)=%"
set "Input=%Input:<=%"
:: Equals are not allowed in variable names
set "Input=%Input:^==%"

Another great tutorial for batch menus is found here.

Answer 3

I saw that none of the above answers completely answered his/her question. One feature that they have left out is selecting all the software it installs in one go (so to speak).

So I made this off the top of my head (extremely sorry if there is something wrong with it, I'll edit it if there is).

@echo off & setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

echo What would you like to install?
::Put your options here, preferably numbered.
set /p op=Type the numbers of the software you want to install (separated by commas with no spaces. E.g: 1,3,2): 

for /f "delims=, tokens=1-5" %%i in ("op") do (
set i=%%i
set j=%%j
set k=%%k
set l=%%l
set m=%%m
)
if %i%X neq X set last=1b & goto %i%
:1b
if %j%X neq X set last=2b & goto %j%
:2b
if %k%X neq X set last=3b & goto %k%
:3b
if %l%X neq X set last=4b & goto %l%
:4b
if %m%X neq X set last=%m% & goto %m%
goto next

:1
::Put the code for doing the first option here
goto %last%
:2
::Put the code for doing the second option here
goto %last%
:3
::Put the code for doing the third option here
goto %last%
:4
::Put the code for doing the fourth option here
goto %last%
:5
::Put the code for doing the fifth option here
goto %last%

:next ::Put some more stuff here...

So that was a bit excessive. Feel free to change some things around and such.

What the code is doing is getting the user input (such as if you put in "1,3,4"), putting each number into its own variable, checking if that variable is empty, and if it isn't, sending you to code that does whatever the option was. It does this a few times until all the variables have been assessed.

Answer 4

A batch file is a list of command prompt commands. The following code prints to the terminal:

echo whateveryouwant

print your menu using these echo statements in a batch file.

Getting user input can be found here: How to read input from console in a batch file?

The installing of applications is a little more complex - you need to know the requirements of your apps and where files should be moved - that should be simple, as well; use move on the appropriate files in the appropriate place.

Answer 5

There is actually an extremely easy way to do this.

@echo off
echo Which app do you want to install?
echo [APP 1]
echo [APP 2]
echo [APP 3]
echo.
echo Type 1, 2, or 3.
set /p "AppInstaller=>"
if %AppInstaller%==1 goto 1
if %AppInstaller%==2 goto 2
if %AppInstaller%==3 goto 3
:1
[INSTALL CODE]
:2
[INSTALL CODE]
:3
[INSTALL CODE]

The menu, when coded like this, will look like this:

Which app do you want to install?
[APP 1]
[APP 2]
[APP 3]

Type 1, 2, or 3.
>_

The code sets the variable AppInstaller to 1, 2, or 3. The file determines this and redirects you to an installer for each one.

Answer 6

This is fairly easy code that I use a lot in multiple choice games:

@echo off
color 0a
cls
:download
echo App 1
echo App 2
echo App 3
echo App 4
echo App 5
echo All Apps
echo 
echo Select What App (1, 2, 3, ect.):
set /p apps=

if %apps%==1 goto 1
if %apps%==1 goto 2
if %apps%==1 goto 3
if %apps%==1 goto 4
if %apps%==1 goto 5
if %apps%==1 goto all

:1
(Your Code Here)
:2
(Your Code Here)
:3
(Your Code Here)
:4
(Your Code Here)
:5
(Your Code Here)
:all
(Your Code Here)