I'm trying to load and save variables into a file.
For example:
#echo off
set /a number=1
echo %number%>text.txt
How do I store the number from the text file in a variable for example variable1?
As mentioned by aschipfl, there are two ways to do it:
Using set /P (redirect variable to a text file and read (the file) with set /p).
Parse the file using a for /F loop.
As the first way is already mentioned by Tiw, I will only deal with the second one. You should do:
#echo off
set "number=1"
(echo %number%)>text.txt
for /F "delims= eol=" %%A IN (text.txt) do set "variable1=%%A"
Note that:
/a option in set is used only to perform arithmetic operations. It doesn't mean that the interpreter will 'see' this as a number.
The parentheses are added for security. They prevent echoing an extra space in the txt file. echo %number%>txt won't work if %number% is <10 because 0 is STDIN, 1 is STDOUT, 2 is STDERR and numbers from 3 to 9 are undefined. Apparently, it's sending STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR/UNDEFINED of nothing to a file.
Further reading:
https://ss64.com/nt/syntax-redirection.html
https://ss64.com/nt/for_f.html
https://ss64.com/nt/set.html
Your code will lead to problem, better change to:
#echo off
set /a number=1
>text.txt echo %number%
Another way of the last line is:
echo %number% 1>text.txt
1 means STDOUT, that's why your code won't write 1 to the file text.txt.
And to read the file into variable1:
set /p variable1=<text.txt
Note when there're multiple lines in the file, only first line will be read into the variable1.
From comment, and changed a little bit:
if not exist "%~dp0settings.gsf" (
echo.>"%~dp0settings.gsf"
goto :createsave
) else (
echo Reading your savefile...
set /p lang=<settings.gsf
)
%~dp0 will end with \, so no need to add another \.
You should close the else block, and it's better to indent and put ) else ( in a single line.
Try change according this, see if it works.
-- Indentation is good for readability and debugging, in other programming languages too.
Related
I'm trying to create a batch file to insert a string from a .txt file at a specific place inside a string in 225 batch files - i.e., inserted into one line in the file at a specific place - but this question concerns the inserting part, and not the loop part, so I've left out the latter in my code example. It's also currently just displaying the text on-screen; not actually writing it to files.
The target files are a bunch of launch .bat files used for running a game server cluster using a tool, so I will have to leave each of them with the same names as they start with (Start XXYY.bat). They contain something along these lines:
start /high ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64\ShooterGameServer.exe Ocean?ServerX=0?ServerY=0?AltSaveDirectoryName=0000?ServerAdminPassword=1234?MaxPlayers=50?ReservedPlayerSlots=25?QueryPort=50002?Port=5002?SeamlessIP=192.168.1.225?RCONEnabled=true?RCONPort=28450 -log -server -NoBattlEye
exit
Where the ServerX, ServerY, AltSaveDirectoryNamen and all three Port settings are unique to each server, so these will have to remain unchanged.
I need to add several more settings, from another .txt file in the final version, but for this example I will just put the additions (the word INSERT added after the ReservedPlayerSlots setting, while keeping each setting divided by question marks) directly into this script.
My code is actually doing exactly what I want it to, but unfortunately it doesn't stop at that point, and decides to append more text than I wanted; specifically, everything I add to the ECHO command which is not a variable name.
To clarify, I get the exact output that I want... Plus the unwanted addition of a bunch of question marks and the word INSERT, which apparently come from my ECHO command, but I just have no idea why they get re-added.
My knowledge of batch scripting is fairly limited, so there might well be something basic that I've overlooked.
I've tried replacing the question marks in the output (which are required to be questions marks in the final version) with normal letters instead, but it doesn't change the behaviour; they were still appended to the expected output, just like the question marks they replaced.
#ECHO OFF
SET FileNum=0000
REM I will have the code loop through 225 files (0000-1414) in the final version, but for test purposes I just set it to one single file number manually here.
SET FileName=Start %FileNum%.bat
REN "%FileName%" temp.txt
FOR /F "tokens=1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12 delims=?" %%a IN (temp.txt) DO (
ECHO %%a?%%b?%%c?%%d?%%e?%%f?%%g?INSERT?%%h?%%i?%%j?%%k?%%l
)
REN temp.txt "%FileName%"
I expect this code to output this:
start /high ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64\ShooterGameServer.exe Ocean?ServerX=0?ServerY=0?AltSaveDirectoryName=0000?ServerAdminPassword=1234?MaxPlayers=50?ReservedPlayerSlots=25?INSERT?QueryPort=50002?Port=5002?SeamlessIP=192.168.1.225?RCONEnabled=true?RCONPort=28450 -log -server -NoBattlEye
exit
But what I am getting is this:
start /high ShooterGame\Binaries\Win64\ShooterGameServer.exe Ocean?ServerX=0?ServerY=0?AltSaveDirectoryName=0000?ServerAdminPassword=1234?MaxPlayers=50?ReservedPlayerSlots=25?INSERT?QueryPort=50002?Port=5002?SeamlessIP=192.168.1.225?RCONEnabled=true?RCONPort=28450 -log -server -NoBattlEye
exit???????INSERT?????
Which is the expected output, but with the unexpected re-addition of every symbol in the ECHO command which did not designate a variable at the end of the output (in this case ???????INSERT?????), just after the exit.
I'm stumped... I hope someone has an idea what I'm doing wrong here.
Okay, I applied the idea that aschipfl provided, and it seems to work now.
The IF NOT "%%b"=="" line seems to have done the trick, after I added the final line with the exit using another ECHO. My full script (including loop and write to file) is now like this:
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
SET "Insert=SettingOne=True?SettingTwo=False?SettingThree=1.000000"
FOR /l %%x IN (0, 1, 14) DO (
FOR /l %%y IN (0, 1, 14) DO (
IF %%x LSS 10 (SET XNum=0%%x) ELSE (SET XNum=%%x)
IF %%y LSS 10 (SET YNum=0%%y) ELSE (SET Ynum=%%y)
SET "FileNum=!XNum!!YNum!"
SET "FileName=Start !FileNum!.bat"
ECHO Filename: !FileName!
REN "!FileName!" temp.txt
(
FOR /F "tokens=1-12 delims=?" %%a IN (temp.txt) DO (
IF NOT "%%b"=="" (
ECHO %%a?%%b?%%c?%%d?%%e?%%f?%%g?%Insert%?%%h?%%i?%%j?%%k?%%l
ECHO exit
)
)
) >edited.txt
REN edited.txt "!FileName!"
DEL /q temp.txt
ECHO has been updated
)
)
This is now working exactly as intended.
It's quite possible that there is a more elegant way of doing this, and I am cartain that there is a way of making this more general and less hard-coded, but it's good enough for my purposes.
I thank you for your help!
I have had plenty of problems when moving lines inside IF/ELSE structure. Code below does not print
echo %VALUE1%;%VALUE2:~0,2%;%VALUE3%;%VALUE4%;%VALUE5%
to file. Instead of that values are printed to console and last character is dropped. What is the problem?
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
SET ENABLED_X=1
SET FILE=test.txt
SET VALUE1=23,5
SET VALUE2=34,1
SET VALUE3=0,45
SET VALUE4=3,33
SET VALUE5=3,5
IF /I %ENABLED_X%==0 (
echo %VALUE1%;%VALUE2%;%VALUE3%;%VALUE4%>>%FILE%
echo NOT ENABLED
) ELSE (
echo %VALUE1%;%VALUE2:~0,2%;%VALUE3%;%VALUE4%;%VALUE5%>>%FILE%
echo %VALUE1%;%VALUE2:~0,2%;%VALUE3%;%VALUE4%;%VALUE5%
echo ENABLED
)
The part 5>>test.txt will be interpreted as redirection. Normally it's used as 1>>file or 2>>file to redirect standard output and error output, respectively.
Use
>>%FILE% echo %VALUE1%;%VALUE2:~0,2%;%VALUE3%;%VALUE4%;%VALUE5%
instead. Doing the redirection at the beginning of the line will never let it interfere with something else.
Note: without quotes, %FILE% is ok. You might run into trouble when using spaces in the file name.
Just place a single space before both of your >>
or
(echo %VALUE…)>>%FILE%
Supposing we have the following code snippet with a text file sample.txt redirected into STDIN:
#echo off
< "sample.txt" (
set /P "ONE="
set /P "TWO="
findstr /R "^"
)
echo %ONE%, %TWO%
...and the content of the related text file sample.txt:
first
second
third
fourth
The output returned on the console is going to be this, which is exactly what I expect (lines first and second are consumed by set /P, hence findstr receives and processes the remaining lines):
third
fourth
first, second
The same output is achieved when findstr /R "^" is replaced by sort /R.
However, when replacing the findstr command line by find /V "" or by more, the output will be:
first
second
third
fourth
first, second
It seems that although set /P already consumed the lines first and second which is proved by the lastly output line, find and also more still receive the entire redirected data.
Why is this, what causes this behaviour? Is there a way to force find or more to receive only the remaining redirected data that has not already been processed by a preceding command?
(The behaviour is the same when redirecting the output data STDOUT to a text file. Also when executing a command line similar to the above batch code in cmd directly, nothing changes.)
Why do some commands process lines of redirected STDIN data which are already consumed by other commands?
Because some commands/programs rewind stdin. You can try this:
#echo off
< "sample.txt" (
set /P "ONE="
set /P "TWO="
more +2
)
echo %ONE%, %TWO%
Result:
third
fourth
first, second
The more +2 skips the first two lines of the file.
Well, the spot-on answer to the question as to why commands behave the way they do lies in Aacini's comment: »because such commands were programmed this way«.
Anyway, after quite some time, I want to collect my findings and eventually present a new work-around I recently found.
There are only a few commands that seem not to reset the data pointer, and each has got its pros and cons:
The usage of findstr to return the remainder of the data is already demonstrated in the question. There is the problem that findstr may hang when redirected input data is not terminated by a final line-break: What are the undocumented features and limitations of the Windows FINDSTR command?
pause does not reset the data pointer (and this is in fact the reason why I wanted to have it mentioned here), independent on whether the data come from input redirection or from a pipe, but it does not provide the consumed character by any means, unfortunately.
set /P is fine for reading single lines that are not longer than about 1 Kbytes, so for returning the remainder of redirected data you will need some kind of loop:
#echo off
rem // Count total number of available lines in advance:
for /F %%C in ('^< "sample.txt" find /C /V ""') do set "COUNT=%%C"
< "sample.txt" (
set /P "ONE="
set /P "TWO="
rem /* Loop here to return the rest; `3` is `1 + 2`, where `2`
rem is the hard-coded number of lines already handled; you can
rem just use `1` here, which will cause read attempty beyond
rem the end of data, causing empty lines to be returned: */
for /L %%N in (3,1,%COUNT%) do (
rem // Replace `&&` by `&` to NOT skip empty lines:
set "LINE=" & set /P "LINE=" && call echo(%%LINE%%
)
)
echo %ONE%, %TWO%
Note that set /P cannot be used within pipes: Piping into SET /P fails due to uninitialised data pointer?
Finally, sort can be used to return the remainder. To prevent it from jumbling the lines of text, use the character position option /+n and set n to a number beyond the actual line lengths:
#echo off
set "ONE="
set "TWO="
< "sample.txt" (
set /P "ONE="
set /P "TWO="
rem /* `sort` with the sort position set beyond the lines of text seems to
rem simply revert the current sort order; another reversion restores the
rem original sort order; I set the sort position just beyond the maximum
rem record or line length, which I set to the greatest possible value: */
sort /+65536 /REC 65535 | sort /+65536 /REC 65535
)
echo %ONE%, %TWO%
I set the record or line length (/REC) to the greatest possible value as it defaults to 4096. Note that the minimum value is actually 128 in case you specify something less. Also note that line-breaks are regarded for the count as well.
How would I set a each line of a text document to separate variables using Batch? I know how to set a variable to the first line of a text document using:
Set /p Variable=<Test.txt
...but I don't know how to read other lines of the file. Lets say for example I had a text document with 3 lines, the first line had 'Apples' written on it, the second had 'Bananas' and the third had 'Pears', and lets say the document was called Fruit.txt. How would I set the variable 'Line_1' to the first line of the document, 'Line_2' to the second line and 'Line_3' to the last line?. Just to keep it simple, lets just say the batch file and Fruit.txt are both in the same folder. I don't want to do this in VBScript, so please only post Batch code. I would have thought that it would be something like:
#Echo off
Set /p Line_1=<Fruit.txt:1
Set /p Line_2=<Fruit.txt:2
Set /p Line_3=<Fruit.txt:3
Echo Fruit 1 is %Line_1%, Fruit 2 is %Line_2% and Fruit 3 is %Line_3%
Pause
Exit
...but quite clearly it isn't. Any help?
EDIT: This is for arbitrary-length files, then. jeb has an answer that solves your particular problem for a known number of lines. I will leave this here, though, as I hate deleting posts I put some time into for explanation :-)
Well, you obviously need some sort of counter. Let's start with 1:
set Counter=1
Then, you need to go line-wise through the file:
for /f %%x in (somefile) do ...
Then store the line in a numbered variable (that's what we have the counter for):
set "Line_!Counter!=%%x"
aaaaand increment the counter:
set /a Counter+=1
And that's it. Add a few more necessary things, you know, the boring stuff that's always needed in such cases (strange statements before and after, block delimiters, etc.), and you're done:
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set Counter=1
for /f %%x in (somefile) do (
set "Line_!Counter!=%%x"
set /a Counter+=1
)
set /a NumLines=Counter - 1
Echo Fruit 1 is %Line_1%, Fruit 2 is %Line_2% and Fruit 3 is %Line_3%
rem or, for arbitrary file lengths:
for /l %%x in (1,1,%NumLines%) do echo Fruit %%x is !Line_%%x!
Some explanation:
set /p Var=<file will set the variable to the first line of a file, as you noted. That works because set /p will prompt for input and < file will redirect the file into standard input of a command. Thus set /p will interpret the file's contents as the entered input up until the user hits Return (i.e. the file contains a line break). That's why you get the first line. The system would throw the whole file at set /p but since the command only reads the first line and then is done they just get discarded.
The syntax you were proposing there is actually for accessing Alternate Data Streams of files on NTFS, which is somethhing totally different.
<short-detour> However, jeb has a way of reading multiple lines. This works because the block (delimited by parentheses) is a single command (see below) you can redirect a file's contents into. Except that command is comprised of multiple statements, each of which will read a single line and store it away. </short-detour>
Which brings us to for /f which iterates over the contents of a file (or the output of a command) line by line and executes a command or block of commands for each line. We can now read the whole file into as many variables as there are lines. We don't even need to know how many in advance.
You may have noticed the Line_!Counter! in there which uses Counter a little bit differently from how you're used to use environment variables, I guess. This is called delayed expansion and is necessary in some cases due to how cmd parses and executes batch files. Environment variables in a command are expanded to their values upon parsing that command. In this case the whole for /f including the block containing two statements is a single command for cmd. So if we used %Counter% it would be replaced by the value Counter had before the loop (1) and never change while the loop is running (as it is parsed once and run multiple times. Delayed expansion (signaled by using ! instead of % for variable access changes that and expands environment variables just prior to running a command.
This is almost always necessary if you change a variable within a loop and use it within the same loop again. Also this makes it necessary to first enable delayed expansion which is done with the setlocal command and an appropriate argument:
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set /a will perform arithmetic. We use it here to increment Counter by one for each line read.
To read multiple lines with set/p you need brackets around the set/p block.
#Echo off
(
Set /p Line_1=
Set /p Line_2=
Set /p Line_3=
) <Fruit.txt
Echo Fruit 1 is %Line_1%, Fruit 2 is %Line_2% and Fruit 3 is %Line_3%
I have a batch file and I want to include an external file containing some variables (say configuration variables). Is it possible?
Note: I'm assuming Windows batch files as most people seem to be unaware that there are significant differences and just blindly call everything with grey text on black background DOS. Nevertheless, the first variant should work in DOS as well.
Executable configuration
The easiest way to do this is to just put the variables in a batch file themselves, each with its own set statement:
set var1=value1
set var2=value2
...
and in your main batch:
call config.cmd
Of course, that also enables variables to be created conditionally or depending on aspects of the system, so it's pretty versatile. However, arbitrary code can run there and if there is a syntax error, then your main batch will exit too. In the UNIX world this seems to be fairly common, especially for shells. And if you think about it, autoexec.bat is nothing else.
Key/value pairs
Another way would be some kind of var=value pairs in the configuration file:
var1=value1
var2=value2
...
You can then use the following snippet to load them:
for /f "delims=" %%x in (config.txt) do (set "%%x")
This utilizes a similar trick as before, namely just using set on each line. The quotes are there to escape things like <, >, &, |. However, they will themselves break when quotes are used in the input. Also you always need to be careful when further processing data in variables stored with such characters.
Generally, automatically escaping arbitrary input to cause no headaches or problems in batch files seems pretty impossible to me. At least I didn't find a way to do so yet. Of course, with the first solution you're pushing that responsibility to the one writing the config file.
If the external configuration file is also valid batch file, you can just use:
call externalconfig.bat
inside your script. Try creating following a.bat:
#echo off
call b.bat
echo %MYVAR%
and b.bat:
set MYVAR=test
Running a.bat should generate output:
test
Batch uses the less than and greater than brackets as input and output pipes.
>file.ext
Using only one output bracket like above will overwrite all the information in that file.
>>file.ext
Using the double right bracket will add the next line to the file.
(
echo
echo
)<file.ext
This will execute the parameters based on the lines of the file. In this case, we are using two lines that will be typed using "echo". The left bracket touching the right parenthesis bracket means that the information from that file will be piped into those lines.
I have compiled an example-only read/write file. Below is the file broken down into sections to explain what each part does.
#echo off
echo TEST R/W
set SRU=0
SRU can be anything in this example. We're actually setting it to prevent a crash if you press Enter too fast.
set /p SRU=Skip Save? (y):
if %SRU%==y goto read
set input=1
set input2=2
set /p input=INPUT:
set /p input2=INPUT2:
Now, we need to write the variables to a file.
(echo %input%)> settings.cdb
(echo %input2%)>> settings.cdb
pause
I use .cdb as a short form for "Command Database". You can use any extension.
The next section is to test the code from scratch. We don't want to use the set variables that were run at the beginning of the file, we actually want them to load FROM the settings.cdb we just wrote.
:read
(
set /p input=
set /p input2=
)<settings.cdb
So, we just piped the first two lines of information that you wrote at the beginning of the file (which you have the option to skip setting the lines to check to make sure it's working) to set the variables of input and input2.
echo %input%
echo %input2%
pause
if %input%==1 goto newecho
pause
exit
:newecho
echo If you can see this, good job!
pause
exit
This displays the information that was set while settings.cdb was piped into the parenthesis. As an extra good-job motivator, pressing enter and setting the default values which we set earlier as "1" will return a good job message.
Using the bracket pipes goes both ways, and is much easier than setting the "FOR" stuff. :)
So you just have to do this right?:
#echo off
echo text shizzle
echo.
echo pause^>nul (press enter)
pause>nul
REM writing to file
(
echo XD
echo LOL
)>settings.cdb
cls
REM setting the variables out of the file
(
set /p input=
set /p input2=
)<settings.cdb
cls
REM echo'ing the variables
echo variables:
echo %input%
echo %input2%
pause>nul
if %input%==XD goto newecho
DEL settings.cdb
exit
:newecho
cls
echo If you can see this, good job!
DEL settings.cdb
pause>nul
exit
:: savevars.bat
:: Use $ to prefix any important variable to save it for future runs.
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
REM Load variables
IF EXIST config.txt FOR /F "delims=" %%A IN (config.txt) DO SET "%%A"
REM Change variables
IF NOT DEFINED $RunCount (
SET $RunCount=1
) ELSE SET /A $RunCount+=1
REM Display variables
SET $
REM Save variables
SET $>config.txt
ENDLOCAL
PAUSE
EXIT /B
Output:
$RunCount=1
$RunCount=2
$RunCount=3
The technique outlined above can also be used to share variables among multiple batch files.
Source: http://www.incodesystems.com/products/batchfi1.htm
Kinda old subject but I had same question a few days ago and I came up with another idea (maybe someone will still find it usefull)
For example you can make a config.bat with different subjects (family, size, color, animals) and apply them individually in any order anywhere you want in your batch scripts:
#echo off
rem Empty the variable to be ready for label config_all
set config_all_selected=
rem Go to the label with the parameter you selected
goto :config_%1
REM This next line is just to go to end of file
REM in case that the parameter %1 is not set
goto :end
REM next label is to jump here and get all variables to be set
:config_all
set config_all_selected=1
:config_family
set mother=Mary
set father=John
set sister=Anna
rem This next line is to skip going to end if config_all label was selected as parameter
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:config_test
set "test_parameter_all=2nd set: The 'all' parameter WAS used before this echo"
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:config_size
set width=20
set height=40
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:config_color
set first_color=blue
set second_color=green
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:config_animals
set dog=Max
set cat=Miau
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:end
After that, you can use it anywhere by calling fully with 'call config.bat all' or calling only parts of it (see example bellow)
The idea in here is that sometimes is more handy when you have the option not to call everything at once. Some variables maybe you don't want to be called yet so you can call them later.
Example test.bat
#echo off
rem This is added just to test the all parameter
set "test_parameter_all=1st set: The 'all' parameter was NOT used before this echo"
call config.bat size
echo My birthday present had a width of %width% and a height of %height%
call config.bat family
call config.bat animals
echo Yesterday %father% and %mother% surprised %sister% with a cat named %cat%
echo Her brother wanted the dog %dog%
rem This shows you if the 'all' parameter was or not used (just for testing)
echo %test_parameter_all%
call config.bat color
echo His lucky color is %first_color% even if %second_color% is also nice.
echo.
pause
Hope it helps the way others help me in here with their answers.
A short version of the above:
config.bat
#echo off
set config_all_selected=
goto :config_%1
goto :end
:config_all
set config_all_selected=1
:config_family
set mother=Mary
set father=John
set daughter=Anna
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:config_size
set width=20
set height=40
if not "%config_all_selected%"=="1" goto :end
:end
test.bat
#echo off
call config.bat size
echo My birthday present had a width of %width% and a height of %height%
call config.bat family
echo %father% and %mother% have a daughter named %daughter%
echo.
pause
Good day.
The best option according to me is to have key/value pairs file as it could be read from other scripting languages.
Other thing is I would prefer to have an option for comments in the values file - which can be easy achieved with eol option in for /f command.
Here's the example
values file:
;;;;;; file with example values ;;;;;;;;
;; Will be processed by a .bat file
;; ';' can be used for commenting a line
First_Value=value001
;;Do not let spaces arround the equal sign
;; As this makes the processing much easier
;; and reliable
Second_Value=%First_Value%_test
;;as call set will be used in reading script
;; refering another variables will be possible.
Third_Value=Something
;;; end
Reading script:
#echo off
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
set "VALUES_FILE=E:\scripts\example.values"
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
FOR /F "usebackq eol=; tokens=* delims=" %%# in (
"%VALUES_FILE%"
) do (
call set "%%#"
)
echo %First_Value% -- %Second_Value% -- %Third_Value%
While trying to use the method with excutable configuration
I noticed that it may work or may NOT work
depending on where in the script is located the call:
call config.cmd
I know it doesn't make any sens, but for me it's a fact.
When "call config.cmd" is located at the top of the
script, it works, but if further in the script it doesn't.
By doesn't work, I mean the variable are not set un the calling script.
Very very strange !!!!