I've got the following CODE:

   Set /P Input=     Selection:
   For /F %%a in ('dir /B /O /A:D *.*') Do (
      Echo %%a
      Pause
      )

Right now, it echos the folder name (in alphabetical order), pauses, and REPEATS echoing the next folder name in the list.  I want to be able to take the variable (%%a) and find out what the first 4 characters of the folder name so that I can compare it against what the user inputed.  From there, I can write the batch file to do what I need from the folder the user selected.  Is there a way to do this?

Thanks.There are probably a few ways to do this.

Code: [Select]echo off
set /p input=    Selection:
for /f "TOKENS=* delims=" %%a in ('dir /b /o /a:d ^| findstr /i /b /c:"%input%"') do (
echo %%a
)

Good luck. 

The compare is set up as case insensitive. Remove the /i switch from the findstr command if necessary.

slice string THUS

%var:~offset_from_start,number_of_characters%

The first character has an offset of zero

so if var=chicken

%var:~0,4%=chic

and

%var~4,3%=KEN