batch file Copy files with certain extensions from multiple directories into one directory

Question

I'm a newbie, so bear with me...

I am trying to copy all .doc files that I have scattered throughout several subdirectories of one main directory into another directory using a batch file. I have managed to get a filelist.txt of all the files (there are hundreds) out of these directories that I want to copy using:

"C:\Main directory\sub directory" dir /b /s *.doc > "C:\Main directory\sub directory\filelist.txt"

What script would I use to xcopy those into one directory? Can I use some code that actually grabs those file names from filelist.txt and xcopies them?

For reference, I looked at the question below because it looked like it was doing what I want to do, but it didn't work for me.

Using xcopy to copy files from several directories to one directory

Also, I would really like to understand this concept, so please break down the code for me to tell me what each item does, or at least include a link that will explain it.

Answer 1

In a batch file solution

for /R c:\source %%f in (*.xml) do copy %%f x:\destination\

The code works as such;

for each file for in directory c:\source and subdirectories /R that match pattern (\*.xml) put the file name in variable %%f, then for each file do copy file copy %%f to destination x:\\destination\\

Just tested it here on my Windows XP computer and it worked like a treat for me. But I typed it into command prompt so I used the single %f variable name version, as described in the linked question above.