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Empty files are those with a file size of zero bytes and no data stored in them. You can make an empty text file, word document, or whatever you want.
With the "touch" command in Linux, we can easily create an empty file. In Windows OS, there is no direct equivalent command for touch. But don't worry, you can accomplish the same thing using a variety of methods in Windows, which I will go over in detail.
Table of Contents
- 1 Using Echo Command in Command Prompt or Batch File
- 2 Using Copy Command in the Command Prompt or Batch File
- 3 Using winit in Command Prompt or Batch File
- 4 Using REM in Command Prompt or Batch File
- 5 Using Powershell
- 6 Using Type Operator in Command Prompt or Batch File
- 7 Using fsutil Command in Command Prompt or Batch File
- 8 Using Colon Operator in Command Prompt / Batch File
- 9 Using Call Operator in Command Prompt / Batch File
- 10 Using break command in command prompt / Batch File
- 11 Using echo with caret(^) in command prompt / Batch File
- 12 Using "type con" command in Command Prompt / Batch File
In general, we like to create a dummy file just for testing our application and then add the information as needed later. You can create an Empty File with the GUI, Command Prompt, or Powershell.
1 Using Echo Command in Command Prompt or Batch File
The echo command in Windows is used to display a string provided by the user. We can create an empty file using Echo and let's look at the syntax at first.
Here you have to understand follow points:
- No need for administrative privileges.
- In this method, if the file already exists then also it will overwrite the file and create the new one.
1a) Method 1
Syntax:
echo -n "" > filenamewithpath
Where "filenamewithpath" indicates you create a filename with a path mentioned in it.
Example:
echo -n "" > D:\empty.txt
Inside D drive, I'm making an empty.txt file.
> is a redirection operator, and is used to send whatever is ever-present on the left to the right. Here echo is holding an empty string "" and an empty string is written to the file empty.txt.This empty string will have 0 sizes.
You can replace D:\empty.txt with whatever you like.
Note that if you are going to write in C drive (or any drive where windows is installed) then you may get access denied.
1b) Method2
Combining echo on/off with & operator
echo off > D:\empty.txt & echo on
1c) Method 3
echo. 2>"D:\empty.txt"
2 Using Copy Command in the Command Prompt or Batch File
The Copy command in Windows is typically used to copy one or more files from one location to another. They can be used to create files, empty files, and so on.
Notes:
- No need for administrative privileges.
- In this method, if the file already exists then also it will overwrite the file and create the new one.
Example:
COPY NUL "D:/empty.txt" > NUL
If the file does not exist, the copy will create a new one; if it does exist, it will overwrite the previous one.
In this case, we're copying NUL to the empty.txt file, and the "> NUL" indicates that it will not display any success or failure messages like "1 file(s) copied." or "Overwrite asdddff.txt? (Yes/No/All):"
3 Using winit in Command Prompt or Batch File
wininit is a Microsoft Windows operating system software component. Using winit.exe, we can create an empty file.
Notes:
- No need for administrative privileges.
- In this method, if the file already exists then also it will overwrite the file and create the new one.
Example:
wininit >D:\empty.txt
4 Using REM in Command Prompt or Batch File
REM is an abbreviation for Remark. It supports the inclusion of comments within batch files. REM can be used to create the empty file shown below.
Notes:
- No need for administrative privileges.
- In this method, if the file already exists then also it will overwrite the file and create the new one.
Example:
REM. >D:\empty.txt
5 Using Powershell
Microsoft Powershell is a set of task automation and configuration management tools. We can use this tool to create an empty file. Simply launch PowerShell and enter the following:
Example:
New-Item D:\empty.txt
Just replace empty.txt with whatever you want.
6 Using Type Operator in Command Prompt or Batch File
type is an in-built command that displays the contents of a text file.
Notes:
- No need for administrative privileges.
- In this method, if the file already exists then also it will overwrite the file and create the new one.
Example:
type NUL > D:\empty.txt
7 Using fsutil Command in Command Prompt or Batch File
Notes:
- Need for administrative privileges.
- In this method, if the file already exists then it doesn't overwrite the file and will prompt you with an error like "Error: The file exists." if you include "< nul" in the command then it will not prompt a message.
Also read: How to list all environment variables?
Example:
fsutil file createnew D:\empty1.txt 0 > nul
8 Using Colon Operator in Command Prompt / Batch File
Example:
: > D:\empty.txt
9 Using Call Operator in Command Prompt / Batch File
You can make an empty file using the Windows command line by combining the "call" method with the "echo" command and the redirection operator. This will allow you to create an empty file.
First, navigate to the path where you want to create an empty file, and then type the following command.
call echo. > filename.txt
Simply change "filename.txt" to the name you want to assign the empty file and hit the "Enter" button.
10 Using break command in command prompt / Batch File
The syntax for it is as follows
break > filename.txt
Simply change "filename.txt" to the name you want to assign the empty file and hit the "Enter" button.
This command redirects the "break" command's null character output to the given filename. This command makes the file in the current directory like the others.
11 Using echo with caret(^) in command prompt / Batch File
The syntax for this is as follows:
echo ^ > filename.txt
Simply change "filename.txt" to the name you want to assign the empty file and hit the "Enter" button.
12 Using "type con" command in Command Prompt / Batch File
The syntax for it is as follows:
type con > filename.txt
FAQ:
How to create read-only empty files in Windows?
We can easily create read-only and empty files in Windows by combining two texts one creates an empty text file and then set read-only permission to the file."type Nul > abc.txt" creates an empty file and "attrib +r abc.txt" creates read-only permission for the same file. Here, attrib is used to set and remove file attributes like hidden(h), read-only(r), system(s), and archive(a).
type Nul > abc.txt & attrib +r abc.txt
If you want to remove read-only from this you can use the "-r" parameter instead of "+r"
How to create a hidden empty file in Windows?
For this we use "+h" parameter as shown below.
type Nul > abc.txt & attrib +h abc.txt
How to create multiple empty files in Windows?
For creating multiple we can use for loop to generate the empty file. Here we are creating 10 empty files in the current location. The filename will be respectively:myemptyfile-1.txt,myemptyfile-2.txt,myemptyfile-3.txt and soon up to myemptyfile-10.txt
for /l %a in (1 1 10) do type nul > "myemptyfile-%a.txt"
Can we create Empty doc, xlsx files in Windows?
Yes, you can create empty docs, and xlsx files using any of the above methods. You can simply try this:
type NUL > D:\emptyDocsFile.docx
Conclusion:
With the aforementioned methods, we can successfully create empty files such as txt, Docx, xlsx, or any text file.
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