DIR

Display a list of files and subfolders.

Syntax
      DIR [pathname(s)] [display_format] [file_attributes] [sorted] [time] [options]

Key
   [pathname] The drive, folder, and/or files to display, 
              this can include wildcards:
                 *   Match any characters
                 ?   Match any ONE character

   [display_format]
   /P   Pause after each screen of data.
   /W   Wide List format, sorted horizontally.
   /D   Wide List format, sorted by vertical column.

   [file_attributes] /A[:]attribute 

   /A:D  Folder         /A:-D  NOT Folder
   /A:R  Read-only      /A:-R  NOT Read-only 
   /A:H  Hidden         /A:-H  NOT Hidden
   /A:A  Archive        /A:-A  NOT Archive
   /A:S  System file    /A:-S  NOT System file
   /A:I  Not content indexed Files  /A:-I  NOT content indexed
   /A:L  Reparse Point  /A:-L  NOT Reparse Point (symbolic link)

   /A:X  No scrub file  /A:-X  Scrub file    (Windows 8+)
   /A:V  Integrity      /A:-V  NOT Integrity (Windows 8+)

   /A    Show all files
   Several attributes can be combined e.g. /A:HD-R

   [sorted]   Sorted by /O[:]sortorder

   /O:N   Name                  /O:-N   Name
   /O:S   file Size             /O:-S   file Size
   /O:E   file Extension        /O:-E   file Extension
   /O:D   Date & time           /O:-D   Date & time
   /O:G   Group folders first   /O:-G   Group folders last
   several attributes can be combined e.g. /O:GEN

   [time] /T:  the time field to display & use for sorting

   /T:C   Creation
   /T:A   Last Access
   /T:W   Last Written (default)

   [options]
   /S     include all subfolders.
   /R     Display alternate data streams.
   /B     Bare format (no heading, file sizes or summary).
   /L     use Lowercase.
   /Q     Display the owner of the file.

   /N     long list format where filenames are on the far right.
   /X     As for /N but with the short filenames included.

   /C     Include thousand separator in file sizes. 
   /-C    Don’t include thousand separator in file sizes.

   /4     Display four-digit years.
          In most recent builds of Windows this switch has no effect.
          The number of digits shown is determined by the ShortDate format
          set in the Control Panel.

The switches above can be preset by adding them to an environment variable called DIRCMD.
For example: SET DIRCMD=/O:N /S

Override any preset DIRCMD switches by prefixing the switch with -
For example: DIR *.* /-S

Sorting

The default Sort Order, if you don’t specify anything with /O, on an NTFS drive will be in sort-of-alphabetical order or on a FAT USB thumb drive, then the order will be based on the order in which files were created and deleted and the lengths of their names.

Upper and Lower Case filenames:

Filenames longer than 8 characters - will always display the filename with mixed case as entered.
Filenames shorter than 8 characters - can display the filename in upper or lower case - this can vary from one client to another (registry setting)

To obtain a bare DIR format (no heading or footer info) but retain all the details, pipe the output of DIR into FIND, this assumes that your date separator is /

DIR c:\temp\*.* | FIND "/"

Listing the full path

The command DIR /b will return just a list of filenames, when displaying subfolders with DIR /b /s the command will return a full pathname.

If you want to list the full path without including subfolders, use the FOR command as in this example script.

Errorlevels

If the file(s) were successfully listed %ERRORLEVEL% = 0
If the file was not found or bad parameters given %ERRORLEVEL% = 1

All file sizes are shown in bytes.

DIR is an internal command.

Examples

List the contents of c:\demo including ALL files:

dir /a c:\demo\

List the contents of c:\demo displaying only the filenames:

dir /b c:\demo\

List the contents of c:\demo and H:\work
notice the trailing backslashes, if either directory does not exist, this will fail and set %Errorlevel% = 1

dir c:\demo\ h:\work\

List all the Reparse Points (symbolic links) in the current users profile:

dir %USERPROFILE% /a:i

List the contents of c:\demo with the full path of each file (source)

for %%A in ("c:\demo\*") do echo %%~fA

List the contents of c:\demo, without the header/footer details:

FOR /f "tokens=*" %%G IN ('dir c:\demo\*.* ^| find "/"') DO echo %%G

“There it was, hidden in alphabetical order” ~ Rita Holt

Related

Long and Short (8.3) filenames - DIR will match either.
WHERE - Locate and display files in a directory tree.
XCOPY /L - List files without copying.
ROBOCOPY /L - List files with specific properties
DIRUSE - show size of multiple subfolders. (Resource Kit)
You can also get File Sizes and Date/Time from Batch Parameters
Equivalent bash command (Linux): ls - List information about file(s)
Equivalent Powershell: Get-ChildItem - Get the contents of a folder or registry key.