Batch file and DEL errorlevel 0 issue

Question

The batch has to remove files and directories from specific locations and output success or stdout/stderr messages to a new .txt file. I have created the most of the script and it performs exactly as it should, except when the deletion is successful it moves forward to the next line rather than echo a 'successful' message on the log.

echo Basic Deletion Batch Script > results.txt
@echo off
call :filelog >> results.txt 2>&1
notepad results.txt
exit /b

:filelog

call :delete new.txt
call :delete newer.txt
call :delete newest.txt
call :remove c:\NoSuchDirectory

GOTO :EOF

:delete
echo deleting %1
del /f /q c:\Users\newuser\Desktop\%1 
if errorlevel 0 echo succesful

GOTO :EOF

:remove
echo deleting directory %1
rmdir /q /s %1

GOTO :EOF

For some reason I can't find the syntax for if del succeeds echo 'successful'. In the above example if I remove the line

if errorlevel 0 echo successful

Everything works fine, but no success message. With this line left in it echoes success for every line.

Answer 1

The answer of aschipfl is great (thanks, helped me a lot!) using the code under Presetting ErrorLevel you get a nice standard function:

Take care to use %~1 instead of %1 in the del statement, or you will get errors if you use a quoted filename.

::######################################################################
::call :DELETE "file.txt"
::call :DELETE "file.txt" "error message"
:DELETE
  >nul ver && for /F "tokens=*" %%# in ('del /F /Q "%~1" 2^>^&1 1^> nul') do (2>nul set =) || (
    if NOT .%2==. echo %~2
  )
goto :EOF

BTW 1: You can give a nifty error message as a second parameter
BTW 2: Using :: instead of REM for comments makes the code even more readable.