On my desktop, there is a folder named "test". Inside this folder is two files, "file1.txt" and "file2.txt".
Take a look at this simple batch script:
#ECHO OFF
SET test="C:\Users\Tyler\Desktop\test"
ECHO %test%
FOR /R %test% %%F IN (*) DO (
ECHO %%F
)
As you might expect, it outputs the following:
"C:\Users\Tyler\Desktop\test"
C:\Users\Tyler\Desktop\test\file1.txt
C:\Users\Tyler\Desktop\test\file2.txt
Now take a look at this variation:
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
SET test="C:\Users\Tyler\Desktop\test"
ECHO !test!
FOR /R !test! %%F IN (*) DO (
ECHO %%F
)
ENDLOCAL
I would expect its output to be no different. However, here it is:
"C:\Users\Tyler\Desktop\test"
It appears that !test! gets expanded in the ECHO !test! line, but not in the FOR /R !test! line, becoming just !test!. Since that is, of course, not a valid path, the FOR /R loop never iterates.
Why is this? What am I missing?
Why FOR works different than ECHO is because the batch parser (cmd.exe) has special parsing rules for FOR, IF and REM.
Therefore delayed expansion doesn't work for the parameters here, only for the arguments inside the parenthesis.
Only percent expansion works for the parameters, as the parser executes the percent expansion phase just before it switches to the special FOR parser rules.
If you can't use percent expansion, as you are inside of a block you can move the code to an own function and call it.
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
SET test="C:\Users\Tyler\Desktop\test"
ECHO !test!
call :doMyLoop test
exit /b
:doMyLoop
set "arg=!%1!"
FOR /R %arg% %%F IN (*) DO (
ECHO %%F
)
Related
I have whittled down a more complex CMD script to the essentials. It reads an input file line by line, unquotes it (if quoted) and writes it out to another CMD file.
The problem is that if the input file contains exclamation marks (! or bang) the character gets stripped out somewhere along the line.
Here is the CMD script, BANG1.CMD:
#echo off
setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
if exist bang2.cmd del bang2.cmd
for /f "tokens=*" %%a in (bang1.txt) do call :doit1 %%a
exit /b
:doit1
set P1=%1
if %P1%. EQU . exit /b
call :unquotex P1 %P1%
echo>>bang2.cmd echo P1:[%P1%]
exit /b
:unquotex
set X=%2
set Q=%X:~0,1%
if "!Q!" EQU ^""" SET X=!X:~1,-1!
set %1=%X%
exit /b
Here is the input file BANG1.TXT:
HelloWorld
"Hello World"
Hello!World
"Hello!World"
The resulting file BANG2.CMD ends up containing this:
echo P1:[HelloWorld]
echo P1:[Hello World]
echo P1:[HelloWorld]
echo P1:[HelloWorld]
The question is, what happened to the embedded bangs? I have tried with and without ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION. I have even tried escaping (^) the bangs in the input file, still with no luck.
Is there any way to preserve them?
Thanks.
The problem at all is delayed expansion here.
With delayed expansion, exclamation marks are used to expand variables, but when there is only one exclamation mark in a line it will be removed.
Specially in FOR /F loops delayed expansion is tricky to handle, as the expansion of the FOR parameter is directly affected by the delayed expansion. The only solution is to disable it temporarily.
The next problem is the CALL, you can't transfer content with CALL (without destroying it).
It's better to transfer the variable by reference (only the variable name) and then get the content in the called function.
The last problem in your code are the percent expansions, do not use them
when delayed expansion is enabled, as the delayed expansion is evaluated after the percent expansion an expanded line will be expanded a second time by the delayed expansion.
Sample.
Assume the content of var is Bang!
echo %var% expands to Bang! but then the delayed expansion will evaluate Bang! to Bang.
With echo !var! you simply get Bang!
#echo off
setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
if exist bang2.cmd del bang2.cmd
for /f "tokens=*" %%a in (bang1.txt) do (
setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
set "line=%%a"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
call :doit1 line
endlocal
endlocal
)
exit /b
:doit1
set "P1=!%1!"
if "!P1!" EQU "" exit /b
call :unquotex P1
echo>>bang2.cmd echo P1:[!P1!]
exit /b
:unquotex
set "param=!%~1!"
if "!param:~0,1!" == ^""" (
set "param=!param:~1,-1!"
)
set "%1=!param!"
exit /b
Like this :
#echo off
(for /f "delims=" %%a in ('type bang1.txt') do echo echo P1:[%%~a])>bang2.cmd
Try this:
#echo off
if exist bang2.cmd del bang2.cmd
for /f "tokens=*" %%a in (bang1.txt) do call :doit1 %%a
exit /b
:doit1
set "P1=%1"
if %P1%.==. exit /b
call :unquotex P1 %P1%
echo>>bang2.cmd echo P1:[%P1%]
exit /b
:unquotex
set "%1=%~2"
exit /b
Using parameters, you can get the version without quotes using %~1 instead of %1. If %1 contains "hello world" for example, then %~1 contains hello world. This allows for an easier unquoting mechanism, removing the need for delayed expansion.
I'm manipulating some HTML via Batch. I'm using delayed expansion but when a semicolon is encountered inside double quotes, the script fails to copy anything after and including the semicolon.
It's probably due to the fact that I use double quotes when I pass the variable to the putLineInHTMLFile label (I need to keep things separated in labels).
#echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
del output.html
for /f "delims=" %%x in (file.html) do call :putLineInHTMLFile "%%x"
goto :EOF
:putLineInHTMLFile
set "line=%~1"
echo !line!>> output.html
file.html contains:
<tag1>
<tag"bla;2">
After running the script, output.html contains:
<tag1>
<tag"bla
I've tried escaping the semicolon with ^ or ^^. Didn't work. I've tried escaping the double quotes too. That didn't work either.
I can change the contents of file.html anyway I please just as long as I can include that semicolon in the output file.
This seems to work for the test-case given; no guarantees for wider use:
#echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
del output.html
for /f "delims=# tokens=*" %%x in (file.html) do (
set "safe=%%x"
set "safe=!safe:"=""!"
call :putLineInHTMLFile "!safe!"
)
goto :eof
:putLineInHTMLFile
set "line=%~1"
set "line=%line:""="%"
echo !line!>> output.html
:eof
Within the "body" of the for command, the %%x has not been split, it's only when processed by the call command that this happens. To protect that, I've used safe to double-up all double-quotes in the string, and then added a line in the subroutine to strip them out again.
This doesn't work properly if the double-quotes aren't matched, but in those cases, neither does the echoing of the trailing >, even when there are no semi-colons present.
This method works in all cases, as long as the quotes be matched (even number) in the input lines:
#echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
del output.html
for /f "delims=" %%x in (file.html) do call :putLineInHTMLFile "%%x"
goto :EOF
:putLineInHTMLFile
set line=%*
echo !line:~1,-1!>> output.html
PS - Please, do not include additional parts that not appears in the original code, like the :eof label... The label is written in uppercase letters in goto :EOF command to indicate that it is special. Type goto /? for further details.
Certainly. The problem is that the subroutine receives
"<tag"bla;2">"
for that line. The parser sees that as
Token1 : "<tag"bla
Token2 : 2">"
because ; like Space is a separator.
Sadly, without knowing what you intend to do within the subroutine, it's difficult to advise on how to circumvent the problem.
#echo off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
SET "sourcedir=U:\sourcedir"
SET "destdir=U:\destdir"
SET "filename1=%sourcedir%\q43391363.txt"
SET "outfile=%destdir%\outfile.txt"
SET "outfile2=%destdir%\outfile2.txt"
del "%outfile%"
del "%outfile2%"
(for /f "delims=" %%x in (%filename1%) do set "line=%%x"&call :putLineInHTMLFile "%%x")>"%outfile2%"
goto :eof
:putLineInHTMLFile
ECHO %*
echo !line!>>"%outfile%"
GOTO :EOF
You would need to change the settings of sourcedir and destdir to suit your circumstances.
I used a file named q43391363.txt containing your data for my testing.
Produces files defined as %outfile% and %outfile2%
So - here's two different ways, one using conventional output direct to outfile1 and the other using redirection from a subroutine into outfile2.
I have 2 issues with my Batch file, I think they are due to EnableDelayedExpansion.
I am basing my script in this post from SO.
I need EnableDelayedExpansion for another part of my script, so I need to keep it.
This is my script:
#echo off
set myPath=Subfolder1
set folderList=input.txt
set originalPath=%~dp0
cd %myPath%
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
:process
for /F "tokens=*" %%S in (%~dp0\%folderList%) do (
echo Folder %%S
REM echo Folder %%S prints: Folder folderName
set testPath=C:\BatchTests\%%S\
echo test path: %testPath%
REM echo test path: %testPath% prints: test path:
)
echo %originalPath%
REM echo %originalPath% prints: C:\BatchTests\
cd %originalPath%
pause
testPath seems to be always empty, and the line cd %originalPath%.
What am I doing wrong? What is the right way to use/set testPath?
The second issue I am having is different, so I opened a separate question here.
To use delayed expansion in batch you need to parts.
First you have to enable it with setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion.
And then you can expand any variable with exclamation marks instead of percent signs.
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set var=origin
(
set var=New Value
echo Percent: %var%
echo delayed: !var!
)
The output is
Percent: origin
delayed: New Value
Percent expansion is evaluated when a command or block is parsed.
Delayed expansion is evaluated when a command is executed.
Alright, so let's say we have a file called start.cmd
#echo off
set value=1
for /D %%a in (%*) do (
echo %%a
)
start.cmd is called by
start.cmd ^%value^% ^%anothervalue^%
The for loop would, of course, take %1, and %2, and so forth.
My question is:
EDIT: How can I escape a value within another value?
I make a guess:
You want to expand the variables just in the for loop, not before.
With your case you only need to add a CALL, as it starts the parser a second time, so it can expand the %value% before it echo it.
#echo off
set value=1
for /D %%a in (%*) do (
call echo %%a
)
But better is to use delayed expansion here
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set value=1
for /D %%a in (%*) do (
echo %%a
)
Then you can start your batch with
start.cmd !value! !anothervalue!
This works as delayed expansion is done after the percent expansion by the parser, so %* is expanded to !value! !anothervalue! and then it's expanded to 1 xyz
I am trying to pass file names as FOR loop parameters to a separate batch file. The problem is, if a file name contains special characters (especially %), the parameter doesnt go to the called script. EG -
The FIRST_SCRIPT.bat is as follows -
cd "C:\theFolder"
for /R %%a in (*.*) do call SECOND_SCRIPT "%%~a"
The SECOND_SCRIPT.bat is as follows -
ECHO %1
If a file name contains % eg. "% of STATS.txt", the output ends up being
of STATS.txt
Which is wrong. I have tried using Setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion but with little success
Setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
for /R %%a in (*.*) do (
SET "var=%%~a"
Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
call TEST_UPGRADE "%var%" "%%~a"
)
There are other stackoverflow answers, but they all need the % character to be known before hand. Since the file names are not in our control, these solutions won't work for us. Is there any way of handling this?
Thanks!
platform: cmd.exe for Windows XP
Aacini shows a solution that would work with % and also ! but it fails with carets ^.
But the solution is simple.
First it's necessary to disable the delayed expansion to handle the exclamation marks.
The filename is now exactly in the var variable.
The problems with carets and percents are caused by the CALL.
This can be solved with the CALL itself by use only the second percent expansion phase of the CALL by using %%var%%.
Setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
for /R %%a in (*.*) do (
SET "var=%%~a"
call TEST_UPGRADE "%%var%%"
)
The next problem is in the second.bat to display the filename.
This should be done with delayed expansion enabled to avoid problems with special characters, or you need always quotes.
set "var=%~1"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
echo Filename: !var!
solution with a temp file:
first.bat
#ECHO OFF &SETLOCAL
REM to escape the '%' use a second '%'
SET "var=40%% &off!.txt"
REM get a random temp file name
:loop
SET "tname=%temp%%random%%random%"
IF EXIST "%tname%" GOTO :loop
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
REM save the variable in the file
>"%tname%" (ECHO(!var!)
CALL "second.bat" "%tname%"
ENDLOCAL
second.bat
#ECHO OFF &SETLOCAL
SET "tname=%~1"
<"%tname%" set/p"var="
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
ECHO !var!
DEL "%tname%" /F /Q
..output is:
40% &off!.txt
EDIT: I added the enable/disable delayed expansion technique to avoid problems with exclamation-mark character.
#echo off
setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
for /F "delims=" %%a in ('dir /B *.txt') do echo %%a
echo/
for %%a in (*.txt) do (
SET "var=%%a"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
call :TEST_UPGRADE "!var:%%=%%%%!" "%%~a"
endlocal
)
goto :EOF
:TEST_UPGRADE
ECHO First: %1 Second: %2
exit /B
Output example:
% of STATS.txt
Discount of 10% in all.txt
Normal file.txt
First: "% of STATS.txt" Second: " of STATS.txt"
First: "Discount of 10% in all.txt" Second: "Discount of 10 in all.txt"
First: "Normal file.txt" Second: "Normal file.txt"