Windows equivalent to Linux `cat -n`?

Without installing a 3rd party tools, this can be done using Powershell, but there is a little bit of scripting complexity as seen below. What is nice about this script is that it will work with any DOS command that produces output.

$i = 1; cat food.txt | % {$i++;"$($i-1) `t $_"}

Note: Powershell has the cat command, as seen in the script, but it lacks line numbering. It is an alias for the PowerShell command get-content.

Here is the output:

1        Apples
2        Bananas
3        Carrots

Here is an example with a directory listing by simply executing dir in the script:

$i = 1; dir | % {$i++;"$($i-1) `t $_"}

Here is the output:

1        backgrounds
2        boot
3        inetpub
4        PerfLogs
5        Program Files
6        Program Files (x86)
7        Riot Games
8        Users
9        Windows
10       Reflect_Install.log

If you want line numbering to start at 0, then set $i = 0

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Alternatively, you can install 3rd party cat program in Windows. There are many ports of UNIX commands to Windows, such as Cygwin and GnuWin32.

After installing Cygwin's base install:

C:\cygwin64\bin\cat -n food.txt

Outputs:

 1  apple
 2  banana
 3  bread
 4  cake