Shift command

The shift command changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch program.

Availability

Shift is an internal command that is available in the following Microsoft operating systems.

• MS-DOS 3.00 and above
• Windows 95
• Windows 98
• Windows Me
• Windows NT
• Windows 2000
• Windows XP
• Windows Vista
• Windows 7
• Windows 8
• Windows 10
• Windows 11

Shift syntax

Windows 2000, XP, and later syntax

Changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch file.

SHIFT [/n]

With Command Extensions enabled, the SHIFT command supports the /n switch that tells the command to start shifting at the nth argument, where n is between zero and eight. The command below would shift %3 to %2, %4 to %3, etc. and leave %0 and %1 unaffected.

SHIFT /2

Windows Me and earlier syntax

Changes the position of replaceable parameters in a batch file.

SHIFT

Shift examples

The example below would be done in a batch file; in this example, we are naming the batch file test.bat and it contains the following lines.

@ECHO OFF
ECHO - %1
SHIFT
ECHO - %1

After creating the example test.bat file shown above, if you were to type the command below at the MS-DOS prompt, it would print "- ONE" and then "- TWO". This command is used to work through each of the command extensions or remove command extensions.

TEST ONE TWO