How remove the | character from variable - batch-file

I've a code like below:
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%B IN ('%*') DO (
ECHO %%B
SET data=%%B
ECHO %data%
)
The %%B contains one or more than one | character, for example the value of %%B is First | Second | Third. The SET data=%%B or SET data="%%B" function doesn't work. When %data% is called back, it shows Echo is off.
I need to remove the | character from %%B and save it to a %data% variable. But I don't know how?
I will be grateful if any solution has been provided from anyone....

The first solution is using:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion
for /F delims^=^ eol^= %%B in ('%*') do (
set "data=%%B"
set "data=!data:|=!"
echo(!data!
)
endlocal
tokens=* results in getting assigned to loop variable B the entire line with leading spaces/tabs removed while delims= results in getting assigned to the loop variable B the entire line including leading spaces/tabs. So the definition of an empty list of delimiters is better in general.
FOR ignores by default empty lines and lines starting with a semicolon because of ; is interpreted by default as end of line character. For that reason the uncommon, not double quoted option string delims^=^ eol^= is used here to define an empty list of delimiters and no end of line character. The caret character ^ is used to escape the next character to get it interpreted as literal character and not as argument separator although not enclosed in a double quoted argument string.
But there is one problem with this solution: A line containing one or more exclamation marks ! is not processed correct because Windows command processor interprets on command line set "data=%%B" each ! as begin/end of a delayed environment variable reference and replaces the string between two exclamation marks by the current value of the environment variable with that name or nothing on no variable existing with such a name and removes everything after ! if there is no more !.
There are at least three solutions.
The first one is enabling and disabling delayed expansion within the loop.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
for /F delims^=^ eol^= %%B in ('%*') do (
set "data=%%B"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "data=!data:|=!"
echo(!data!
endlocal
)
endlocal
Please read this answer for details about the commands SETLOCAL and ENDLOCAL as they do much more than just toggling delayed expansion on/off in the loop.
( between echo and value of environment variable data is used in case of a line contains only | without or with additionally just spaces/tabs resulting in data becoming either undefined or a string consisting only of spaces/tabs. A space between echo and !data! would be on execution just the command echo  with an ignored space and 0 or more spaces/tabs resulting in getting output ECHO is off. instead of an empty line or a line with just spaces/tabs. The opening round bracket prevents that and is interpreted by cmd.exe as separator between command echo and its argument string which begins in this case always with (. ECHO ignores the first character of the argument string on output as long as the argument string is not /? and so ( is never output.
The second solution is using a subroutine:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
for /F delims^=^ eol^= %%B in ('%*') do (
set "data=%%B"
call :ProcessLine
)
endlocal
goto :EOF
:ProcessLine
set "data=%data:|=%"
echo(%data%
goto :EOF
Note: echo %data% can result in unexpected behavior if the line contains characters like the redirection operators < and > or the operator & as Windows command processor executes echo(%data% after substituting %data% with current string of environment variable data. Even set "data=%data:|=%" can be problematic depending on line containing " and <>&. So this solution is really not safe.
See also Where does GOTO :EOF return to?
The third solution is using a "double percent" environment variable reference and using command CALL to force a double parsing of the command line containing %%variable%% instead of just %variable% as usual.
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
for /F delims^=^ eol^= %%B in ('%*') do (
set "data=%%B"
call set "data=%%data:|=%%"
call echo(%%data%%
)
endlocal
Note Also this solution is not really safe depending on the data as the second solution.
See also How does the Windows Command Interpreter (CMD.EXE) parse scripts?
Windows command processor is designed for executing commands and applications and not for reformatting or processing CSV files using vertical bar as delimiter/separator.
For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.
call /?
echo /?
endlocal /?
for /?
goto /?
set /?
setlocal /?
And read also answer on Why is no string output with 'echo %var%' after using 'set var = text' on command line? for the reason using the syntax set "variable=value" instead of set variable=value or set variable="value".

Related

How to read specific characters from specific lines in file with batch file?

I have a text file of data that I want to extract a couple values from specific locations on specific lines.
[0xA1 rr]
I2C START BIT
WRITE: 0xA1 ACK
READ: 0x61
READ: ACK 0xA8
NACK
I2C STOP BIT
I2C>
I2C>
In the above file, I want to take the '61' on the 4th line, and the 'A8' on the 5th line.
The values after the '0x' change but are always two characters in the same locations (which I'll then combine and convert from Hex to Decimal).
It seems I can take an entire specific line with something like the following code:
for /F "skip=3 delims=" %%i in ("%FileName%") set "Line04=%%i"
and I can take values from after specific characters with something like the following code:
FOR /f "usebackqtokens=1*delims=:" %%a IN ("%FileName%") DO (
IF "%%a"=="0x" SET /a Byte01=%%b
)
But I don't need all the values after '0x' just the two on lines 4 and 5.
I'm having trouble joining these commands together to take just the required two characters from each of the two lines.
Can anyone help me put all these pieces (or other pieces I haven't figured out) together to pull these values I need out of the file?
The two byte values can be read from the file as demonstrated by the following code:
#echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
set "FileName=%TEMP%\%~n0.tmp"
(
echo [0xA1 rr]
echo I2C START BIT
echo WRITE: 0xA1 ACK
echo READ: 0x61
echo READ: ACK 0xA8
echo NACK
echo I2C STOP BIT
echo I2C^>
echo I2C^>
)>"%FileName%"
set "Byte01="
set "Byte02="
for /F "usebackq skip=3 tokens=2,3" %%I in ("%FileName%") do if not defined Byte01 (set /A "Byte01=%%I") else (set /A "Byte02=%%J" & goto Output)
:Output
if defined Byte01 (
echo The byte values are:
echo/
set Byte
)
del "%FileName%"
endlocal
The command FOR with the used options skips the first three lines of the file.
The fourth line is first split up into substrings using the default string delimiters normal space and horizontal tab. The second substring is 0x61 which is assigned to the specified loop variable I. There is no third substring on fourth line.
The IF condition checks if the environment variable Byte01 explicitly undefined above the FOR loop is still not defined in which case the command SET is used to evaluate an arithmetic expression which interprets the string value 0x61 assigned to the loop variable I as hexadecimal value and assigns this value in decimal to the environment variable Byte01.
Then FOR processes the fifth line with splitting the line up once again into substrings using space/tab as delimiters and assigns the second substring (token) ACK to loop variable I and the third substring 0xA8 to next but one loop variable J according to the ASCII table.
There is executed next once again the IF condition, but this time Byte01 is already defined resulting in continuing batch file processing on ELSE command block with command SET used to evaluate the arithmetic expression to define the environment variable Byte02 with the hexadecimal value assigned to loop variable J converted to a decimal value AND command GOTO to continue processing of the batch file on the line below the label Output. That results in exiting the loop before it processes more lines from the file.
For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.
call /? ... explains %~n0 (name of argument 0 which is the batch file name)
del /?
echo /?
endlocal /?
for /?
if /?
set /?
setlocal /?
See also:
Microsoft documentation about Using command redirection operators
Single line with multiple commands using Windows batch file
You could even go belt and braces, and use FindStr to isolate only the lines which begin with READ: and end with 0xNN, (where NN is a base 16 hex pair).
You would however need to confirm that because some of the lines in your posted content have non consistent trailing whitespace!
#Echo Off
SetLocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
Set "FileName=C:\Users\NFM\Desktop\output.log"
For /F "Delims==" %%G In ('"(Set Byte[) 2>NUL"') Do Set "%%G="
If Not Exist "%FileName%" (Exit /B) Else Set "i=0"
For /F "Tokens=2 Delims=x" %%G In ('%SystemRoot%\System32\findstr.exe
/RC:"^READ: [ACK ]*0x[0123456789ABCDEF][0123456789ABCDEF]$" "%FileName%"'
) Do (Set /A i += 1 & SetLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
For %%H In (!i!) Do EndLocal & Set "Byte[%%H]=%%G")
Rem Example line to show you any variables defined with their values.
(Set Byte[) 2>NUL && Pause
Don't forget to change your input file on line 3 before testing it.
BTW, you could even convert each of those hex pairs to decimal: by changing Set "Byte[%%H]=%%G" to Set /A Byte[%%H] = 0x%%G

Get directory name from array in Batch [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Arrays, linked lists and other data structures in cmd.exe (batch) script
(11 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
I have a list of paths from which I want to extract folder name
I wrote:
#echo off
set paths[0]="C:\p\test1"
set paths[1]="C:\p\test2"
set paths[2]="C:\p\test3"
(for %%p in (%paths%) do (
for %%F in (%%p) do echo Processing %%~nxF
))
but seems that nothing is shown.
I expected to see:
Processing test1
Processing test2
Processing test3
It makes a big difference if first " is specified on a set command line left to variable name or left to variable value. In most cases it is better to specify it left to the variable name, especially if a variable value holding a path should be concatenated later with a file name to a full qualified file name.
See also: Why is no string output with 'echo %var%' after using 'set var = text' on command line?
The solution for this task is:
#echo off
set "paths[0]=C:\p\test1"
set "paths[1]=C:\p\test2"
set "paths[2]=C:\p\test3"
for /F "tokens=1* delims==" %%I in ('set paths[ 2^>nul') do echo Processing %%~nxJ
The command FOR with option /F and a set enclosed in ' results in starting one more command process running in background with %ComSpec% /c and the command line specified between the two ' appended as further arguments. So executed is in this case with Windows installed to C:\Windows:
C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c set paths[ 2>nul
The command SET outputs all environment variables of which name starts with paths[ line by line using the format VariableName=VariableValue to handle STDOUT of started background command process.
It could be that there is no environment variable of which name starts with paths[ which would result in an error message output to handle STDERR by command SET which would be redirected from background command process to handle STDERR of the command process which is processing the batch file and for that reason would be displayed in console window. For that reason a possible error message is redirected by the background command process to device NUL to suppress it with using 2>nul.
Read the Microsoft article about Using command redirection operators for an explanation of 2>nul. The redirection operator > must be escaped with caret character ^ on FOR command line to be interpreted as literal character when Windows command interpreter processes this command line before executing command FOR which executes the embedded set command line with using a separate command process started in background.
FOR captures in this case everything written to handle STDOUT of started background command process and process this output line by line after started cmd.exe terminated itself.
Empty lines are ignored by FOR which does not matter here as there are no empty lines to process.
FOR would split up a non-empty line into substrings using normal space and horizontal tab as string delimiters and would assign just first space/tab separated string to specified loop variable, if it does not start with default end of line character ;. This default line splitting behavior is not wanted here. For that reason the option delims== defines the equal sign as string delimiter.
The option tokens=1* instructs FOR to assign in this case the variable name to specified loop variable I and assign everything after the equal sign(s) after variable name without any further string splitting on equal signs to next loop variable according to ASCII table which is in this case J. That is the reason why loop variables are interpreted case-sensitive while environment variables are handled case-insensitive by the Windows command processor.
In this case only the variable value is of interest in the body of the FOR loop. For that reason just loop variable J is used on ECHO command line while I is not used at all.
The modifier %~nxJ results in removing surrounding double quotes from string value assigned to loop variable J and next get the string after last backslash or beginning of string in case of the string value does not contain a backslash at all. This is the name of the last folder in folder path string.
For understanding the used commands and how they work, open a command prompt window, execute there the following commands, and read entirely all help pages displayed for each command very carefully.
echo /?
for /?
set /?
UPDATE:
There is a big advantage of this solution in comparison to the other two solutions posted up to now here:
There is not used delayed environment variable expansion which is always problematic on working with file or folder names on not being 100% sure that no folder and no file contains ever an exclamation mark in its name.
Let us compare the three solutions with unusual folder names containing !.
#echo off
rem Make sure there is no environment variable defined of which name starts with
rem paths[ as suggested by Compo which is a very valuable addition on my code.
for /F "delims==" %%I in ('set paths[ 2^>nul') do set "%%I="
set "paths[0]=C:\p\test1!"
set "paths[1]=C:\p\!test2"
set "paths[2]=C:\p\!test!3"
echo/
echo Results of solution 1:
echo/
for /F "tokens=1* delims==" %%I in ('set paths[ 2^>nul') do echo Processing %%~nxJ
echo/
echo Results of solution 2:
echo/
SetLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /L %%i in (0,1,2) do (
for %%j in (!paths[%%i]!) do echo Processing %%~nxj
)
endLocal
echo/
echo Results of solution 3:
echo/
Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
Call :process paths "!paths[0]!" "!paths[1]!" "!paths[2]!"
Endlocal
echo/
pause
goto :EOF
:process
Set P_C=0
Set /a P_C-=1
For %%a in (%*) DO (
CALL :populate %1 "%%~a"
)
Set /a P_C-=1
For /L %%b in (0,1,!P_C!) DO (
ECHO Processing %1[%%b] = "!%1[%%b]!"
)
GOTO :EOF
:populate
Set "%1[!P_C!]=%~2"
Set /a P_C+=1
GOTO :EOF
The output on running this batch file is:
Results of solution 1:
Processing test1!
Processing !test2
Processing !test!3
Results of solution 2:
Processing test1
Processing test2
Processing 3
Results of solution 3:
Processing paths[0] = "C:\p\test1\p\\p\3"
Solution 1 as posted here works for all three folder names correct.
Solution 2 omits for first and second folder name the exclamation mark which will most likely cause errors on further processing. The third folder name is modified to something completely different. Enabled delayed expansion results in parsing a second time echo Processing %%~nxj after %~nxj being replaced by !test!3 with interpreting test in folder name now as environment variable name of which value is referenced delayed. There was no environment variable test defined on running this batch file and so !test!3 became just 3 before echo was executed by Windows command processor.
Solution 3 produces garbage on any folder name contains an exclamation mark, even on full qualified folder name defined before enabling delayed expansion and referenced with delayed expansion on calling the subroutine process.
Well, folder and file names with an exclamation mark in name are fortunately rare which makes the usage of delayed expansion usually no problem. But I want to mention here nevertheless the potential problems which could occur on any folder name containing one or more !.
Something like that should work :
#echo off
set paths[0]="C:\p\test1"
set paths[1]="C:\p\test2"
set paths[2]="C:\p\test3"
SetLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /L %%i in (0,1,2) do (
for %%j in (!paths[%%i]!) do echo Processing %%~nxj
)
pause
Define the Array within the function.
This approach can be used to define multiplay Arrays.
#ECHO OFF
Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
:: REM P_C is used to define the range of the Array. The -1 operations on P_C is to shift the paths parameter out of the Arrays working Index.
::REM the first parameter passed is used as the Arrays Name. all other parameters are assigned to index values 0 +
Call :process paths "C:\p\test1" "C:\p\test2" "C:\p\test3"
pause
:process
Set P_C=0
Set /a P_C-=1
For %%a in (%*) DO (
CALL :populate %1 "%%~a"
)
Set /a P_C-=1
For /L %%b in (0,1,!P_C!) DO (
ECHO Processing %1[%%b] = "!%1[%%b]!"
)
GOTO :EOF
:populate
Set "%1[!P_C!]=%~2"
Set /a P_C+=1
GOTO :EOF

Batch read file that contains greater / lower than signs / carets

Alright, so I'm trying to read all lines from a text file. My current way is:
FOR /F "delims=0123456789 tokens=1,*" %%F IN ('find /v /n "" ^< myFile.bat') DO (
SET line = %%G
:: ^ Syntax errors at this line
SET line=!line:~1!
:: Yes, I have delayed expansions enabled due to a lot of fors and ifs needed
)
Basically the input file is another batch file which also contains the exact same code as above and other code with <, >, ^ etc. Once I read a line, it's basically impossible to use %%G as it will expand to stuff like:
SET line=ECHO Hello >> someFile
or
SET line=FOR /L %%G IN (1,1,5) ( SET "line=ECHO Hello %%G" & call :something & >nul SET /P =. )
Which will obviously not work. I've tried many workarounds (all have failed), including:
SET line="%%G
Which (most of the time) works, but from there using is with basically anything is near-impossible, even with something like:
:fixLine
SET line=%line:^=^^^^%
SET line=%line:<=^^^<%
SET line=%line:>=^^^>%
SET line=%line:'=^^^'%
SET line=%line:~2%
GOTO :returnFixLine
But all methods fail in some case or another. How can I read a file containing a batch script from another batch script, including special characters?
EDIT:
Doing
SET "line=%%G"
won't work, as %%G can contain quotes, and even if it doesn't, carets are still special in quotes:
SET "line=ECHO ^<Hello^>"
will turn into
SET "line=ECHO <Hello>"
Also, lines containing exclamation marks will get expanded too.
The first problems are the spaces in set line = %%G, as you set the variable line<space> instead of line.
And you prefix to the content a space.
You should use set line=%%G instead, but even that produces sometimes problems, when spaces are behind the %%G they are appended.
The best way is to use the extended SET syntax set "line=%%G".
Btw. There exists only one special charcter which can fail with a FOR-parameter expansion, that is the exclamation mark when delayed expansion is enabled.
The solution is to toggle delayed expansion.
setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
FOR /F "delims= tokens=*" %%F IN ('find /v /n "" ^< myFile.bat') DO (
SET "line=%%F"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
SET "line=!line:*]=!"
echo(Testoutput: !line!
endlocal
)

How to extract values from an XML file with no newline characters (very long single line)?

I am trying to extract values for test_count, test_fail_count, test_pass_count from an XML file. This XML file has just one very long line:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><ROOT test_count="22" test_fail_count="1" test_pass_count="21".......</ROOT>
Magoo helped me with the script, see his answer on my previous question
How to match strings from an XML file using batch and assign to variable?
This script worked initially. But when I incorporated this into my larger overall script, it failed. And I have not been able getting this script working again as expected since making this modification.
Any thoughts on how to debug this?
#ECHO Off
SETLOCAL
SET "sourcedir=U:\sourcedir"
SET "filename1=%sourcedir%\Report.xml"
SET "testcount="
SET "testfailcount="
echo forloop
FOR /f "usebackqdelims= " %%a IN ("%filename1%") DO (
SET "xmlline=%%a"
CALL :process
)
ECHO test count=%testcount% test fail count=%testfailcount%
GOTO :EOF
:process
echo in process
:: dispose of awkward characters
SET "xmlline=%xmlline:?= %"
SET "xmlline=%xmlline:>= %"
SET "xmlline=%xmlline:<= %"
CALL :select %xmlline%
GOTO :EOF
:select
echo in select
IF /i "%~1"=="" GOTO :EOF
IF DEFINED testcount IF DEFINED testfailcount GOTO :EOF
IF /i "%~1"=="test_count" SET /a testcount=%~2
IF /i "%~1"=="test_fail_count" SET /a testfailcount=%~2
SHIFT
GOTO select
GOTO :EOF
try the xpath.bat - it can extract values from xml files by an xpath expression and does not require installation of external tools:
call xpath.bat "report.xml" "//ROOT/#test_count"
call xpath.bat "report.xml" "//ROOT/#test_fail_count"
As in the metadata is pointed that file should be utf-8 you can check the encodings of the files on both machines.
The reason for not anymore working code is in the command line
FOR /f "usebackqdelims= " %%a IN ("%filename1%") DO (
There is a space character after the equal sign which results in splitting the line read from XML file up into multiple tokens using the space character as delimiter. So instead of getting entire XML file contents assigned to loop variable a, just the string up to first space character is assigned to the loop variable. For that reason the environment variable xmlline gets assigned just <?xml instead of the entire line read from XML file.
Change the line to
FOR /f "usebackq delims=" %%a IN ("%filename1%") DO (
There is no space after equal sign, but one between usebackq and delims=.
Or use the command line below as Magoo posted in his answer with no space after equal sign, but also no space between the two options usebackq and delims=.
FOR /f "usebackqdelims=" %%a IN ("%filename1%") DO (
Magoo explained in his comment also why the space character between the two options usebackq and delims= is not really necessary, but which I suggest to add for easier reading the options.
usebackq results in interpreting the file name enclosed in double quotes as file name and not as string to split up into tokens.
delims= with no characters specified after equal sign disables default splitting up of line read from file on spaces and horizontal tabs.
Open a command prompt window, run for /? and read the output help pages for help on for /F and its options.

Setting up variable in for loop in batch

I am fighting with little piece of code for last two days.
In this I am not able to set variable in a for loop.
I want to assign a filename to a variable for string manipulation.
echo off
for /f %%a IN ('dir /b *_ah.ttf') DO (
set /a fName=%%~na
echo %fName%
)
When I echo fName variable I get only last filename repeatedly number of times for for loop count.
(I want to pass this variable as an argument to some batch file as follows
ttfhnt --strong-stem-width=D -i %%a %fName:~0,-3%.ttf
but its failing due to above problem)
Can somebody help me please?
When the cmd parser reads a line or a block of lines (the code inside the parenthesis), all variable reads are replaced with the value inside the variable before starting to execute the code. If the execution of the code in the block changes the value of the variable, this value can not be seen from inside the same block, as the read operation on the variable does not exist, as it was replaced with the value in the variable.
This same behaviour is seen in lines where several commands are concatenated with &. The line is fully parsed and then executed. If the first commands change the value of a variable, the later commands can not use this changed value because the read operation replace.
To solve it, you need to enable delayed expansion, and, where needed, change the syntax from %var% to !var!, indicating to the parser that the read operation needs to be delayed until the execution of the command.
And set /A is only used for arithmetic operations
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /f "delims=" %%a IN ('dir /b *_ah.ttf') DO (
set "fName=%%~na"
echo "!fName!" "!fName:~0,-3!"
)
edited to adapt to comments
While for command is able to execute a command (in the OP code, the dir...), retrieve its output and then iterate over the lines in this output, the original reason for the command is to iterate over a set of files. In this form, the code can be written as
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for %%a IN ("*_ah.ttf") DO (
set "fName=%%~na"
echo "!fName!" "!fName:~0,-3!"
)
Now, the for command replaceable parameter will iterate over the indicated set of files. (execute for /? for a list of all the command options).
But as foxidrive points, the problem with delayed expansion are the exclamation signs. Without delayed expansion, they are another normal character, but with delayed expansion they frequently become a problem when a value containig them is assigned/echoed.
A quick test
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set "test=this is a test^!"
echo ---------------------
set test
echo ---------------------
echo delayed : !test!
echo normal : %test%
for /f "delims=" %%a in ("!test!") do echo for : %%a
Will show
---------------------
test=this is a test!
---------------------
delayed : this is a test!
normal : this is a test
for : this is a test
Obviously when the value is a file name, this behaviour will make the code find or not the file.
Depending on the case different solutions can be used, but usually it involves the activation / desactivation of the delayed expansion behaviour (beware, the endlocal removes any change in environment variables from the previous setlocal).
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set "test=this is a test^!"
echo ---------------------
set test
echo ---------------------
echo delayed : !test!
rem Commuted to no delayed expansion
setlocal disabledelayedexpansion
echo normal : %test%
endlocal
rem Cancelled the initial enable delayed expansion
for /f "delims=" %%a in ("!test!") do endlocal & echo for : %%a
rem The last endlocal has removed the changes to the variable
echo no data : [%test%]

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