Only First 8 Characters in a Batch Label Recognized

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This article was previously published under Q63071

SUMMARY

MS-DOS recognizes only the first eight characters of a batch file label; subsequent characters are ignored.

NOTE: This eight-character limitation also applies to the %config% variable passed to the AUTOEXEC.BAT file in MS-DOS versions 6.0 or later when you use multi-boot configurations.

For example, the labels LATESTCHANGE and LATESTCHANGES are identical to MS- DOS. The line "GOTO LATESTCHANGE" (without the quotation marks) transfers to the first label in the file that has same first eight characters as LATESTCHANGE.

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MORE INFORMATION

The following examples illustrate this limitation.

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Example 1

The following example

goto latestch
: latestchanges
echo two
: latestch
echo three

displays the following

two
three

rather than displaying the following:

three

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Example 2

The following example

:latestch
echo zero
:latestchanges
echo one
goto latestchanges

displays the following until CTRL+C is pressed, terminating the batch file:

zero
one
zero
one
zero
one
etc.

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APPLIES TO

Microsoft MS-DOS 4.01 Standard Edition
Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft MS-DOS 5.0a
Microsoft MS-DOS 6.0 Standard Edition
Microsoft MS-DOS 6.2 Standard Edition
Microsoft MS-DOS 6.21 Standard Edition
Microsoft MS-DOS 6.22 Standard Edition

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KB63071

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Retired KB Content Disclaimer

This article was written about products for which Microsoft no longer offers support. Therefore, this article is offered "as is" and will no longer be updated.

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