IF... OR IF... in a windows batch file

The zmbq solution is good, but cannot be used in all situations, such as inside a block of code like a FOR DO(...) loop.

An alternative is to use an indicator variable. Initialize it to be undefined, and then define it only if any one of the OR conditions is true. Then use IF DEFINED as a final test - no need to use delayed expansion.

FOR ..... DO (
  set "TRUE="
  IF cond1 set TRUE=1
  IF cond2 set TRUE=1
  IF defined TRUE (
    ...
  ) else (
    ...
  )
)

You could add the ELSE IF logic that arasmussen uses on the grounds that it might perform a wee bit faster if the 1st condition is true, but I never bother.

Addendum - This is a duplicate question with nearly identical answers to Using an OR in an IF statement WinXP Batch Script

Final addendum - I almost forgot my favorite technique to test if a variable is any one of a list of case insensitive values. Initialize a test variable containing a delimitted list of acceptable values, and then use search and replace to test if your variable is within the list. This is very fast and uses minimal code for an arbitrarily long list. It does require delayed expansion (or else the CALL %%VAR%% trick). Also the test is CASE INSENSITIVE.

set "TEST=;val1;val2;val3;val4;val5;"
if "!TEST:;%VAR%;=!" neq "!TEST!" (echo true) else (echo false)

The above can fail if VAR contains =, so the test is not fool-proof.

If doing the test within a block where delayed expansion is needed to access current value of VAR then

for ... do (
  set "TEST=;val1;val2;val3;val4;val5;"
  for /f %%A in (";!VAR!;") do if "!TEST:%%A=!" neq "!TEST!" (echo true) else (echo false)
)

FOR options like "delims=" might be needed depending on expected values within VAR

The above strategy can be made reliable even with = in VAR by adding a bit more code.

set "TEST=;val1;val2;val3;val4;val5;"
if "!TEST:;%VAR%;=!" neq "!TEST!" if "!TEST:;%VAR%;=;%VAR%;"=="!TEST!" echo true

But now we have lost the ability of providing an ELSE clause unless we add an indicator variable. The code has begun to look a bit "ugly", but I think it is the best performing reliable method for testing if VAR is any one of an arbitrary number of case-insensitive options.

Finally there is a simpler version that I think is slightly slower because it must perform one IF for each value. Aacini provided this solution in a comment to the accepted answer in the before mentioned link

for %%A in ("val1" "val2" "val3" "val4" "val5") do if "%VAR%"==%%A echo true

The list of values cannot include the * or ? characters, and the values and %VAR% should not contain quotes. Quotes lead to problems if the %VAR% also contains spaces or special characters like ^, & etc. One other limitation with this solution is it does not provide the option for an ELSE clause unless you add an indicator variable. Advantages are it can be case sensitive or insensitive depending on presence or absence of IF /I option.

I don't think so. Just use two IFs and GOTO the same label:

IF cond1 GOTO foundit
IF cond2 GOTO foundit

ECHO Didn't found it
GOTO end

:foundit
ECHO Found it!

:end

A simple "FOR" can be used in a single line to use an "or" condition:

FOR %%a in (item1 item2 ...) DO IF {condition_involving_%%a} {execute_command}  

Applied to your case:

FOR %%a in (1 2) DO IF %var%==%%a ECHO TRUE

Suppress executing twice

A comment pointed out that {execute_command} may be encountered twice. To avoid this, you can use a goto after the first encounter.

FOR %%a in (1 2) DO IF %var%==%%a (
    ECHO TRUE
    goto :continue
)
:continue 

If you think there's a possibility that {execute_command} might be executed twice and you don't want that, you can just add && goto :eof:

FOR %%a in (1 2) DO IF %var%==%%a ECHO TRUE && goto :eof

Much simpler, and still on a single line.

Thanks for this post, it helped me a lot.

Dunno if it can help but I had the issue and thanks to you I found what I think is another way to solve it based on this boolean equivalence:

"A or B" is the same as "not(not A and not B)"

Thus:

IF [%var%] == [1] OR IF [%var%] == [2] ECHO TRUE

Becomes:

IF not [%var%] == [1] IF not [%var%] == [2] ECHO FALSE

Even if this question is a little older:

If you want to use if cond1 or cond 2 - you should not use complicated loops or stuff like that.

Simple provide both ifs after each other combined with goto - that's an implicit or.

//thats an implicit IF cond1 OR cond2 OR cond3
if cond1 GOTO doit
if cond2 GOTO doit
if cond3 GOTO doit

//thats our else.
GOTO end

:doit
  echo "doing it"

:end

Without goto but an "inplace" action, you might execute the action 3 times, if ALL conditions are matching.