Something like a function/method in batch files?

Question

is there anything that mimicks a method like one knows it from Java, C# etc.? I have 5 lines of commands in a batch file, those 5 lines are used at more than one place insid

Answer 1

Coming from a Java background, I have tried to incorporate some familiar conventions when creating procedures for .bat scripts.

The script below demonstrates the definition of two procedures.

@ECHO OFF
SET firstInstanceVariable="Hello world!"
SET secondInstanceVariable="Good bye world!"
GOTO:MAIN

:firstMethodName
    SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
        SET firstArgumentPassedIn=%~1
        SET secondArgumentPassedIn=%~2
        
        ECHO %firstInstanceVariable%
        ECHO "The first argument passed in was %firstArgumentPassedIn%"
        ECHO "The second argument passed in was %secondArgumentPassedIn%"
    ENDLOCAL
EXIT /B 0

:secondMethodName
    SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
        SET firstArgumentPassedIn=%~1
        SET secondArgumentPassedIn=%~2
        
        ECHO %secondInstanceVariable%
        ECHO "The first argument passed in was %firstArgumentPassedIn%"
        ECHO "The second argument passed in was %secondArgumentPassedIn%"
    ENDLOCAL
EXIT /B 0


:MAIN
call:firstMethodName "The Quick Brown" "Fox Jumps Over"
call:secondMethodName "1 2 3 4" 3.14

Notice that an explicit GOTO:MAIN is necessary to skip over the procedure definitions. This is because you must skip over the procedure before deciding to read it. Otherwise, the procedure will be executed.

The code below demonstrates a close Java-equivalent of the above .bat script.

public class MyObject {
    private String firstInstanceVariable = "Hello world!";
    private String secondInstanceVariable = "Good bye world!";
    public void firstMethodName(Object... arguments) {
        String firstArgumentPassedIn = arguments[0].toString();
        String secondArgumentPassedIn = arguments[1].toString();
        System.out.println(firstInstanceVariable);
        System.out.format("The first argument passed in was %s", firstArgumentPassedIn);
        System.out.format("The second argument passed in was %s", secondArgumentPassedIn);
    }

    public void secondMethodName(Object... arguments) {
        String firstArgumentPassedIn = arguments[0].toString();
        String secondArgumentPassedIn = arguments[1].toString();
        System.out.println(secondInstanceVariable);
        System.out.format("The first argument passed in was %s", firstArgumentPassedIn);
        System.out.format("The second argument passed in was %s", secondArgumentPassedIn);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        MyObject myObject = new MyObject();
        myObject.firstMethodName("The Quick Brown", "Fox Jumps Over");
        myObject.secondMethodName(new Integer[]{1,2,3,4}, 3.14);
    }
}