How to echo “2” (no quotes) to a file, from a batch script?

Question

How do I echo the number 2 into a file, from a batch script?

This doesn\'t work:

Echo 2>> file.txt

because 2&g

Answer 1

To write a number to a file without a trailing line-break you could use the following:

cmd /C set /A "2">file.txt

This works, because set /A returns the (last) result (without line-break) when executed in command prompt context (hence when directly run in cmd.exe).

If you are working in command prompt anyway, you could simply use this:

set /A "2">file.txt

Though you cannot use that in a batch file, you need the extra cmd /C to force the right execution context.

Needless to say, this can of course only output numbers, or precisely said, signed 32-bit integers.