Can you help me with this advanced windows batch scripting problem for experts only?

Question

Ok, this is a toughie to reproduce. This is part of a larger problem, but I've narrowed down the issue to something very specific. If I can solve this problem, I will solve the bigger problem in the most elegant way possible. I would like a solution to this specific problem....

Heres a batch file, lets call it: "test1.bat"

test1.bat:

@ECHO OFF
SET TMPTEXT=%~1%
ECHO %TMPTEXT%

Now, on the command line call the batch file like so:

test1 "blah "something;something else""

The output should be:

blah "something

I want the entire string output. I need a method of escaping the semi-colon, or the double-quotes, or some way to get that batch file output the entire string not splitting it up.

What I'm trying to achieve is: I have a text file with environment variables in it. I want to output all the lines in the text file, from a batch file, and substitute the environment variables. I'm using a for /f loop with a call to the above batch file to replace the environment variables... my only problem is semicolons in the command are throwing everything off!

I would be really surprised and grateful if anyone can solve this problem.

Answer 1

goto :start

Windows batch interpreter sees the semi-colon as an argument separator. The only way to escape this is by surrounding it with double quotes, and you are on the right track.



Your best bet will be to use %* to get the whole command line. You could then use a for loop to strip the quotes. Here is your batch file modified to do this:



:start

@ECHO OFF

SET TMPTEXT=%~1%

ECHO %TMPTEXT%

echo %*



REM // remove the quotes

for /f "tokens=*" %%a in ("%*") do (

echo %%~a

)



exit /b 0



Here is the output:

F:\>test "blah "something;something else""

blah "something

"blah "something;something else""

blah "something;something else"



Please leave a comment if this helps and you have any questions.



Thanks

Raymond

Answer 2

Its been a while. This is why I left dos in '87 ;)



found this ...

3/4 way down http://www.experts-exchange.com/OS/Microsoft_Operating_Systems/MS_DOS/Q_21567899.html



@echo off

setlocal

set Work=%Path%

set Work=C:\WinNT\system32;D:\Test\;D:\"Tools";"D:\Te;st"

:: *** Replace quotes with an asterisk; we need to check for a single quote later on, which doesn't really work in batch.

set Work=%Work:"=*%

echo %Work%

set InQuote=0

set PathComplete=0

:loop

set Char=%Work:~0,1%

set Work=%Work:~1%

if not defined Work set PathComplete=1

:: *** the semicolon is a delimiter only if found outside a pair of quotation marks:

if "%Char%"==";" (

if %InQuote%==0 set PathComplete=1

)

:: *** Quotation marks have been replaced with "*";

:: *** drop them, if present, and keep track of whether we're in or out:

if "%Char%"=="*" (

if %InQuote%==1 (

set InQuote=0

) else (

set InQuote=1

)

set Char=

)

:: *** If the current path is complete, do something, then start again;

:: *** otherwise ad the character read to the current path.

if %PathComplete%==1 (

call :TokenComplete

set PathComplete=0

set CurrentPath=

) else (

set CurrentPath=%CurrentPath%%Char%

)

if defined Work goto loop

goto leave



:TokenComplete

:: *** Remove any trailing backslashes for a consistent path:

if "%CurrentPath:~-1%"=="\" set CurrentPath=%CurrentPath:~0,-1%

echo [%CurrentPath%]

goto :eof



:leave

Answer 3

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Answer 4

echo %1



will echo the entire command line including the quotation marks and the semicolons.