Now that you know a little something about basic commands and programs, let's move on to integrating them with files and other commands.

Redirecting
     The standard forms of input and output for most commands are from the keyboard and monitor. However, with redirection, we can change where the commands get their input and put their output. More specifically, we can change them to point to a file or device. For example, instead of the dir command printing its output to the screen, you can redirect it to a file. You create a redirect using the "<" and ">" symbols. The "<" is used for redirecting input and the ">" is for redirecting output. Below is what the syntax looks like.

syntax ---
C:\WINDOWS\Desktop> command > file-or-device

example ---
C:\WINDOWS\Desktop> dir > dirlist.txt

     Keep in mind that redirection is used only in conjunction with files and devices. So what type of devices can you use? The only one of concern to us is the prn device. This represents the printer. Using this, you can redirect a program that normally outputs to the screen to output to the printer. That's a pretty cool trick if you need a quick hard copy of a file. For example, lets say you have a list of people you're including in your plans for world domination in a file called myworld.txt, and you're in hurry and need a quick print out of this file to show someone. Below is what you'd type.

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop> type myworld.txt > prn

     There's one more thing we forgot to mention: the nul object. This is what you'd use if you wanted the command to throw away the output. For example, try typing dir > nul and hit enter. You shouldn't see anything. That's because it redirects it to nothing, a null object.

Piping
     Pipes are kind of like redirections except that they redirect input and output between two different programs or commands instead of files and devices. They work like a real pipe in that you can string together multiple programs into one long pipe that you can then send data through.

     Each program in the pipe operates on the data and passes along to the next program. To construct a pipe, we use the "|" symbol between the programs we want to join. Below is an example of piping the dir command to the more filter.

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop> dir | more

     The more filter takes input and displays it a page at a time. If you try out the above example, you should see the directory listing pause at every screen full. Another widely used filter is sort. This filter takes the input and outputs it in alphabetical order. For example, lets say you want the names on your world domination file to appear in alphabetical order a page at a time. Below is what you would write.

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop> type myworld.txt | sort | more

     Now lets say you wanted to print out that same file in alphabetical order. Below is what you'd write.

C:\WINDOWS\Desktop> type myworld.txt | sort > prn

     It's all that easy. As you can see, redirection and piping can be very useful when used properly. If you'd like to learn how to use DOS FTP, check out our DOS FTP walk-through.

Head on to:
Introduction to DOS
Basic DOS Commands
Redirecting And Piping