I got stuck with reading this script. I assume that SET RAWDATA is some sort of setting the parameters, but can someone tell me what is all about. Particulary I wonder about this syntax: '='%, ' ='%, =%.
SET RAWDATA=%RAWDATA:~0,-1%
SET KEYS=%KEYS:~0,-2%
SET RAWDATA=%RAWDATA: =%
SET RAWDATA=%RAWDATA:' ='%
SET RAWDATA=%RAWDATA: '='%
SET RAWDATA=NULL,now(),%RAWDATA%
[Original Title: Why are lowercase values in a batch %variable% being returned as uppercase?]
Condition
I have a batch file where the value is declared for a variable as such:
SET myVar="something.lowercase"
But later in the script when you reference that variable as such:
%myVar%
the value is coming in as SOMETHING.LOWERCASE which is causing the particular command to not work correctly. (see resolution: the issue was a spurious " in the command and the uppercase was the way the "failure" was being reported)
Concern
Why and under what situation does this happen? moot as the value is not being changed, but rather the way the failure is reported and the failure was due to a " being introduced in the passed value (see resolution)
Context
For context, in case it matters, it is being called in this way: (it turned out to matter as the introduced " was causing the check to fail and the confusion was coming from the "cannot find ..." being uppercase)
TASKLIST /FI "IMAGENAME eq %myVar%" 2>NUL | FIND /I /N "%myVar%">NUL
I suspect that this is somehow happening in the context of this command, but cannot be sure and don't know why. If that is by chance the case, how can I mitigate it? (see resolution)
Thank you in advance.
Resolution
Thanks to #Campo's suggestion, changing the value by dropping the " resolved the issue and the script functions correctly now. Thank you.
Your issue is because you're needlessly including doublequotes in your variable value.
Because you've included the doublequotes the TaskList filter is looking for:
"IMAGENAME eq "something.lowercase""
...and your Find command is trying to match:
""something.lowercase""
The fix is to use the correct syntax for setting a variable:
Set "myVar=something.lowercase"
SOLVED!
Update: It figures moments after posting for help which is something I never do I'd figure it out...I tend to over think things, and that was the case here, it was just so simple! >.<
Solution:
(This worked under Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit)
Set var=
Set var=SomeText %var1% %var2% %var3%
Echo %var% > output.txt
See an explanation in my answer below.
I've been searching and trying several posts here similar to my question for hours with no success. I'm not new to Programming in BATCH but I have memory problems and thus can't always remember things. It also doesn't help that I program in other languages on other platforms which usually means I'm trying to use *nix shell commands in my Windows Batch scripts >.<
I've gotten quite close with some examples but nothing that works as needed.
Ideally, I'd like this work to work on Windows 7, 8, 8.1, Vista and 10 as that is the intended target.
This is what I need to accomplish:
The user will answer a series of questions, each question is stored into a .txt file (or variable if you prefer. I just used text files because of a past project where I ran into issues with variables that couldn't be solved and text files worked). The lines in each text file will need to be output into a single text file, on a single line which will then be read back in as a variable and run. Again, you could just use and combine the variables in your example if that's easier for you or both of us ;P
This is a snippet example of how I was doing it
SET file1=
SET /P file1=file1:%=%
ECHO %file1% > file1.txt
Then
copy /b file1.txt + file2.txt + file3.txt + file4.txt output.txt
Here is how I'd like the result to look
toolkit /S "C:\ToolKit Bravo\Data\etc" "D:\ToolKit Bravo\Data\Ops"
The "" quotation marks are necessary. The output MUST be EXACTLY as shown above for the example I've given. The "/S" & paths are variable NOT fixed!
Here is the best I've been able to come up with using variables..
"toolkit /S "C:\ToolKit Bravo\Data\etc" "D:\ToolKit Bravo\Data\Ops""
Update 2 - An explanation as requested:
The paths in the above example directly above this are not fixed! This was an Example Only. "toolkit" is fixed, this doesn't change. "/S" is an option selected by the user to pass on to the "toolkit". Both the source and destination paths are again input by the user in "quotation" marks. They're not fixed paths.
As you can see the result is surrounded by quotations which is NOT acceptable. And Please remember, I NEED the quotations around the paths in the end result, so removing them all is NOT an option!
Any help is greatly appreciated! Thank you for your time.
Just take all of the characters between the quotes.
SET X="toolkit /S "C:\ToolKit Bravo\Data\etc" "D:\ToolKit Bravo\Data\Ops""
ECHO %X%
SET Y=%x:~1,-1%
ECHO %Y%
Solution:
This solved my problem under Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit
Set var=
Set var=SomeText %var1% %var2% %var3%
Echo %var% > textfile.txt
Using the SET command I first made sure the variable or var for short was empty. Using this command:
Set var=
I then proceeded to create my variable using all of the other variables I had created and wanted to combine using this line of code:
Set var=SomeText %var1% %var2% %var3%
Note that I have preceded the variables with "SomeText". This is where I'll place the name of the .exe I'm passing the arguments to, but it can be anything you want included. I also need spaces between each variable so I've left spaces between them in the example code. If you don't want the spaces simply remove them, and you'll have 1234, instead of 1 2 3 4.
Finally I send the combined variable out to a .txt file.
Echo %var% > textfile.txt
However, you could also simply call the new variable now like this:
%var%
can i see the value of variable using ECHO command? I tried this way but didn't work.
#echo off
set _src = String
echo %_src%
pause
Take the spaces out either side of your equals sign and this should work.
I'm working on a Windows batch file that will bcp three text files into SQL Server. If something goes wrong in production, I want to be able to override the file names. So I'm thinking of doing something like this.
bcp.exe MyDB..MyTable1 in %1 -SMyServer -T -c -m0
bcp.exe MyDB..MyTable2 in %2 -SMyServer -T -c -m0
bcp.exe MyDB..MyTable3 in %3 -SMyServer -T -c -m0
I would like to be able to enter default names for all three files, to be used if the positional parameters are not supplied. The idea would be either to execute
myjob.bat
with no parameters, and have it use the defaults, or execute
myjob.bat "c:\myfile1" "c:\myfile2" "c:\myfile3"
and have it use those files. I haven't been able to figure out how to tell if %1, %2 and %3 exist and/or are null. I also don't know how to set those values conditionally. Is this possible? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
To test for the existence of a command line paramater, use empty brackets:
IF [%1]==[] echo Value Missing
or
IF [%1] EQU [] echo Value Missing
The SS64 page on IF will help you here. Under "Does %1 exist?".
You can't set a positional parameter, so what you should do is do something like
SET MYVAR=%1
You can then re-set MYVAR based on its contents.
The right thing would be to use a "if defined" statement, which is used to test for the existence of a variable. For example:
IF DEFINED somevariable echo Value exists
In this particular case, the negative form should be used:
IF NOT DEFINED somevariable echo Value missing
PS: the variable name should be used without "%" caracters.
Both answers given are correct, but I do mine a little different. You might want to consider a couple things...
Start the batch with:
SetLocal
and end it with
EndLocal
This will keep all your 'SETs" to be only valid during the current session, and will not leave vars left around named like "FileName1" or any other variables you set during the run, that could interfere with the next run of the batch file. So, you can do something like:
IF "%1"=="" SET FileName1=c:\file1.txt
The other trick is if you only provide 1, or 2 parameters, use the SHIFT command to move them, so the one you are looking for is ALWAYS at %1...
For example, process the first parameter, shift them, and then do it again. This way, you are not hard-coding %1, %2, %3, etc...
The Windows batch processor is much more powerful than people give it credit for.. I've done some crazy stuff with it, including calculating yesterday's date, even across month and year boundaries including Leap Year, and localization, etc.
If you really want to get creative, you can call functions in the batch processor... But that's really for a different discussion... :)
Oh, and don't name your batch files .bat either.. They are .cmd's now.. heh..
Hope this helps.
rem set defaults:
set filename1="c:\file1.txt"
set filename2="c:\file2.txt"
set filename3="c:\file3.txt"
rem set parameters:
IF NOT "a%1"=="a" (set filename1="%1")
IF NOT "a%2"=="a" (set filename2="%2")
IF NOT "a%3"=="a" (set filename1="%3")
echo %filename1%, %filename2%, %filename3%
Be careful with quotation characters though, you may or may not need them in your variables.
Late answer, but currently the accepted one is at least suboptimal.
Using quotes is ALWAYS better than using any other characters to enclose %1.
Because when %1 contains spaces or special characters like &, the IF [%1] == simply stops with a syntax error.
But for the case that %1 contains quotes, like in myBatch.bat "my file.txt", a simple IF "%1" == "" would fail.
But as you can't know if quotes are used or not, there is the syntax %~1, this removes enclosing quotes when necessary.
Therefore, the code should look like
set "file1=%~1"
IF "%~1"=="" set "file1=default file"
type "%file1%" --- always enclose your variables in quotes
If you have to handle stranger and nastier arguments like myBatch.bat "This & will "^&crash
Then take a look at SO:How to receive even the strangest command line parameters?