echo | Microsoft Learn

Syntax

echo [<message>]
echo [on | off]
Parameters
Parameter
Description
Remarks
The echo <message> command is particularly useful when echo is turned off. To display a message that is several lines long without displaying any commands, you can include several echo <message> commands after the echo off command in your batch program.
After echo is turned off, the command prompt doesn't appear in the Command Prompt window. To display the command prompt, type echo on.
If used in a batch file, echo on and echo off don't affect the setting at the command prompt.
To prevent echoing a particular command in a batch file, insert an @ sign in front of the command. To prevent echoing all commands in a batch file, include the echo off command at the beginning of the file.
To display an exclamation mark (!) in batch scripts, wrap the word or phrase in double quotes followed by a caret before the exclamation mark ("Hello World^!"). Alternatively, a double caret (^^) can be used without the need for double quotes (Hello World^^!).
To display a pipe (|), ampersand (&) or redirection character (< or >) when you are using echo, use a caret (^) immediately before that character. For example, ^|, ^&, ^>, or ^<. To display a caret, type two carets in succession (^^).
Examples
To display the current echo setting, type:
To echo a blank line on the screen, type:
echo.
Don't include a space before the period. Otherwise, the period appears instead of a blank line.
To prevent echoing commands at the command prompt, type:
echo off
When echo is turned off, the command prompt doesn't appear in the Command Prompt window. To display the command prompt again, type echo on.
To prevent all commands in a batch file (including the echo off command) from displaying on the screen, on the first line of the batch file type:
@echo off
You can use the echo command as part of an if statement. For example, to search the current directory for any file with the .rpt file name extension, and to echo a message if such a file is found, type:
if exist *.rpt echo The report has arrived.
The following batch file searches the current directory for files with the .txt file name extension, and displays a message indicating the results of the search:
@echo off
if not exist *.txt (
echo This directory contains no text files.
) else (
   echo This directory contains the following text files:
   echo.
   dir /b *.txt
If no .txt files are found when the batch file is run, the following message displays:
This directory contains no text files.
If .txt files are found when the batch file is run the following output displays (for this example, assume the files File1.txt, File2.txt, and File3.txt exist):
This directory contains the following text files:
File1.txt
File2.txt
File3.txt
Related links
Command-Line Syntax Key