Append multiple text files together using the DOS command prompt

If like me you record log files for some of your Excel files or databases you'll know it's not unusual to have a directory full of log files. If you then decide you want to import these into Excel or a database so you can do some processing on them it's quite a task to open each in turn.  You could create a short macro to do this for you, but there is also another way...

Open the command prompt and remind yourself of what DOS looks like, then use the “for” command.

The syntax is simple enough:

    for <filename> in (<directory>) do <command> <filename>

Working with our directory full of (*.log / *.txt) files, we use the “type” command and then pass each file into a new file using the >> operator.

">>" Appends data to the end of the file.
">" Completely replaces the file with new contents.

Inconclusion then here’s the command you need to run.

    for %f in (*.log) do type “%f” >> NewFile.txt

This assumes you are in the directory containing the log files.  If you are appending *.txt files I'd advise you to use NewFile.log.  otherwise the command will append the new file to itself when it finds it in the directory !

As always, hope it proves useful.