Format:

[command] [> | >>] [filename]

> saves the output of [command] into [filename].

>> appends the output of [command] into [filename].

Examples:

1. echo Hello World > myfile.txt saves "Hello World" into myfile.txt

2. echo your name is %name% >> myfile.txt appends "your name is xxxx" into myfile.txt

3. dir C:\ > directory.txt saves the directory of C:\ to directory.txt

Ways to create a file with the echo command:

ECHO. > example.bat (creates an empty file called "example.bat")

ECHO message > example.bat (creates example.bat containing "message")
ECHO message >> example.bat (adds "message" to a new line in example.bat)
(ECHO message) >> example.bat (same as above, just another way to write it)

If you want to create a file via the ECHO command, in a specific directory on your computer, you might run into a problem.

ECHO Hello how are you? > C:\Program Files\example.bat

(This will NOT make a file in the folder "Program Files", and might show an error message)

But then how do we do it? Well it's actually extremely simple... When typing a path or file name that has a space included in it's name, then remember to use "quotes"

ECHO Hello how are you? > "C:\Program Files\example.bat"
(This will create "example.bat" in the folder "Program Files")

But what if you want to make a file that outputs a new file?

ECHO message > file1.bat > example.bat

(example.bat is NOT going to contain "message > file1.bat")
example.bat will just contain "message"... nothing else

Then how do we do this? Well for this we use the ^ symbol.

ECHO message ^> file1.bat > example.bat

(example.bat is going to contain "message > file1.bat")

Same goes for other stuff in batch

The next step requires you to have some knowledge about variables and statements:

click here to learn about variables | click here to learn about if and else statements

Variables:

SET example="text"
ECHO %example% > file.bat
(This will output "text" to file.bat)

if we don't want it to output "text" but just plain %example% then write:

ECHO ^%example^% > file.bat
(This will output "%example%" to file.bat)

IF/ELSE statements:

ELSE statements are written with "pipes" ||

IF ^%example^%=="Hello" ECHO True || ECHO False > file.bat

(example.bat is going to contain "if %example%=="Hello" echo True")
[it ignores everything after the ELSE statement]

to output the whole line then we do the same as before.

IF ^%example^%=="Hello" ECHO True ^|^| ECHO False > file.bat

This will output:
IF %example%=="Hello" ECHO True || ECHO False

If the variable is equal to "Hello" then it will say "True", ELSE it will say "False"

Using many ECHO commands to create a batch file:

(
  echo echo hi, this is the date today
  echo date /T
  echo echo created on %DATE%
  echo pause >nul
)>hi.bat

The command interpreter treats the whole section in parenthesis as a single command, then saves all the output to hi.bat.

hi.bat now contains:

echo hi, this is the date today
date /T
echo created on [date created]
pause >nul