<p>How can I read the first line from a text file using a Windows batch file? Since the file is large I only want to deal with the first line.</p>

You might give this a try:
```
```
@echo off

for /f %%a in (sample.txt) do (
  echo %%a
  exit /b
)
```
```
edit
Or, say you have four columns of data and want from the 5th row down to the bottom, try this:
```
```
@echo off

for /f "skip=4 tokens=1-4" %%a in (junkl.txt) do (
  echo %%a %%b %%c %%d
)
```
```