How do I create a multiline text file with Echo in Windows command prompt?

I'm using Windows 7 and I would like to quickly create a small text file with a few lines of text in the Command prompt.

I can create a single line text file with:

echo hello > myfile.txt 

but how can I create a text file with multiple lines using this echo command? I have tried with the following, which doesn't work when I read the file with more:

echo hello\nsecond line > myfile.txt 

Any suggestions? Or is there any other standard command that I can use for this instead of echo?

4 Answers

You could use the >> characters to append a second line to the file, e.g.

echo hello > myfile.txt echo second line >> myfile.txt 

There are three ways.

1. Append each line using >>:

   C:\Users\Elias>echo foo > a.txt C:\Users\Elias>echo bar >> a.txt 

2. Use parentheses to echo multiple lines:

   C:\Users\Elias>(echo foo More? echo bar) > a.txt 

3. Type caret (^) and hit ENTER twice after each line to continue adding lines:

   C:\Users\Elias>echo foo^ More? More? bar > a.txt 

All the above produce the same file:

C:\Users\Elias>type a.txt foo bar 

If you REALLY want to type everything in a single line you can just put an & for each new line, like:

echo hello >> myfile.txt & echo second line >> myfile.txt 

but efotinis' answer is the easiest one.

You can put a space between each line to write:

echo line1 line2 "line 3" > file.txt