cmd.exe: complex conditions?

Question

in DOS batch files, In an IF statement, is it possible to combine two or more conditions using AND or OR ? I was not able to find any documentation for that

Answer 1

No, there is no easier way.

For and you can also just chain them without introducing blocks:

if COND1 if COND2 ...

which frankly isn't any worse than

if COND1 and COND2 ...

However, for or it gets uglier, indeed:

set COND=
if COND1 set COND=1
if COND2 set COND=1
if defined COND ...

or:

if COND1 goto :meh
if COND2 goto :meh
goto :meh2
:meh
...
:meh2

I once saw a batch preprocessor which used C-like syntax for control flow and batch stuff in between and then converted such conditionals into multiple jumps and checks. However, that thing was for DOS batch files and was of little to no use in a Windows environment.