wait for user choice by pressing keyboard, select the default one if timeout

jjm

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Feb 11, 2011, 2:44:53 AM2/11/11

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i'm writing a batch file to mimic a simple menu system

in my batch file i want to wait for user input for seconds, if user
doesn't press any key during this period then make the default choice.
i have googled for a while, what i know now is i could use ping to
achieve the delay function , but i don't know how to get the user
input during this period?

Tom Lavedas

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Feb 11, 2011, 6:03:15 PM2/11/11

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The closest I can think of is the old Choice.exe program, but it is no
longer supplied with later versions of windows. I think Win NT was
the last one that cam with it.

Or you can try my little home brew that uses a hybrid JScript/batch
approach ...

@set @x=0 /* Batch part
@echo off
setlocal
set "Input="&set delay=10000 %/ milliseconds /%
set /p Input=Enter data here: < nul
for /f "delims=" %%I in (
'cscript //nologo //e:jscript "%~f0" %delay%'
) do endlocal & set "Input=%%I"
if not defined input echo.
echo.For example: "%Input%"
goto :EOF

Jscript part */
var d=WSH.Arguments(0);var t=0;
with(new ActiveXObject("WScript.Shell")){
with(Exec('%comspec% /c(set /p _#=<con&set _#)')){
while(Status==0){
WSH.Sleep(50);t+=50;if(t>d)Terminate()};
if (!StdOut.AtEndofStream) {
WSH.Echo(StdOut.ReadLine().substr(3))}}}
_______________________
Tom Lavedas

billious

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Feb 12, 2011, 1:05:32 AM2/12/11

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Hmm. I believe that NT did not have choice.exe - it was included in 98 and
me.

This hybrid-scripting seems to be a viable approach here. I'd offer two
modifications

1/ add

(set @x=)

directly after the "@echo off" to clean up the environment a little

2/ if not defined input echo.
becomes

if not defined input set input=DEFAULTVALUE

to get closer to OP's ambition.

Not quite a complete solution though - as this requires a CR and CHOICE
worked on the single key-entry.

I'll continue this in your "hybrid scripting" thread in alt.msdos.batch.nt

127.0.0.1

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Mar 14, 2011, 1:13:51 PM3/14/11

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Try choice.(exe|com)

Timo Salmi

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Mar 19, 2011, 1:21:41 AM3/19/11

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If you can find a choice.com (or a similar program) use it with
/t[:]c,nn switch

See http://www.netikka.net/tsneti/info/tscmd014.htm

All the best, Timo

--
Prof. Timo Salmi mailto:t...@uwasa.fi ftp & http://garbo.uwasa.fi/
Hpage: http://www.uwasa.fi/laskentatoimi/english/personnel/salmitimo/
Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Vaasa, Finland
Useful CMD script tricks http://www.netikka.net/tsneti/info/tscmd.php

Bill Stewart

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Mar 28, 2011, 12:31:39 PM3/28/11

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Hi,

You can also use editvar/editv32/editv64 or choose/choose32/choose64

editvar/choose - MS-DOS versions
editv32/choose32 - Windows console x86 versions
editv64/choose64 - Windows console x64 versions

editvar/editv32/editv64 is a utility that lets you interactively edit
environment variables. It has several features many have told me they
have found useful, such as timeout and masked input (displays '*' for
typed characters, useful for entering passwords).

choose/choose32/choose64 is an alternative to the Microsoft 'choice'
program and offers the same feature set with a couple of enhancements.

All programs are freeware, available from my web site:
http://www.westmesatech.com/editv.html

--
Bill Stewart