Read ONLY x lines from a txt file with a windows batch file

Question

How can I read only X lines from a a.txt file?

The file contains all the names of a directory, I would like to read only x lines. X can be a number that can varies from

Answer 1

You'll need to modify this based on your needs, but the script below will loop through the file 'directories.txt', and ECHO the contents of the line until you hit the maximum number of lines set in maxlines.

@ECHO OFF
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

SET /A maxlines=1
SET /A linecount=0

FOR /F %%A IN (directories.txt) DO ( 
  IF !linecount! GEQ %maxlines% GOTO ExitLoop
  ECHO %%A 
  SET /A linecount+=1
)

:ExitLoop

PAUSE