Store Multiline String in Batch Variable - windows

I need to remove a string that may occur inside a file. The string has many lines. Can I perform this action using a Batch script?
I've heard that you cant have variables with more than one line in Batch? The string will come from another file that I will read into a variable using Batch.
The following code seems to only store the 1st/last line of a file in the string?? Whats going wrong?
Rem Read file and store all contents in string
Set replace=
Set target=
Set OUTFILE=res.txt
for /f "delims=" %%i in (myFile.txt) do set target=%target% %%i
echo %target%
Rem When I print target I only have one line not many lines?? Whats going wrong
Rem Remove the target string from myOtherFile.txt: this code is from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5273937/how-to-replace-substrings-in-windows-batch-file
for /f "tokens=1,* delims=¶" %%A in ( '"type myOtherFile.txt"') do (
SET string=%%A
SET modified=!string:%target%=%replace%!
echo !modified! >> %OUTFILE%
)

Try this:
#echo off &setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /f "delims=" %%i in (myFile.txt) do set "target=!target! %%i"
echo %target%
Inside a code block you need always delayed expansion for variables with variable values.

Try this, change last to:
echo !target!

Related

Insert a string at a specific position in a file with batch script

I'm new to batch script, I have a file with a string containing the word "media"(quotes included) and I need to insert another string right before it.
I messed around with findstr but couldn't make heads or tails of it.
Edit2:
here's what i did, doesn't seem to work:
#echo off
SETLOCAL=ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
for /f "delims=," %%a in (f1.txt) do (
set foo=%%a
if !foo!=="media"
set var=!foo:"media"=aa"media"!
echo !foo! >> f2.txt)
You have two options to do this. You can read the file with a FOR /F command or if you are just editing a single line file then you can use the SET /P command.
Here are both of those examples in a single batch file.
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /F "delims=" %%G in (sotemp.txt) do (
set "line=%%G"
set "foo=!line:"media"=aa"media"!"
echo !foo!
)
set /p "line="<sotemp.txt
echo %line:"media"=aa"media"%
pause

remove all double quotes in a file.txt

What I have to do is a batch script that:
_read a file line by line
_remove all the double quote characters writing the result in a file
My attempt was a script like:
for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%a in ("%GRUPPI3%.txt") do (
SET VARIAB=%%a
SET RESULT=%VARIAB:"=%
echo %RESULT% >> output.txt
)
After some try I realized that the PROBLEM IS THE VARIABLE "VARIAB"!
Doing an echo of VARIAB the result is null or an old value (like an old line read by the variable %%a). (Why "VARIAB" doesn't become a copy of "%%a" as I would expect?)
I can't understand such a behaviour...
Someone know the solution?
Thanks
Cristian
#ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL
(
for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%a in ("%GRUPPI3%.txt") do (
SET "VARIAB=%%a"
IF DEFINED variab (
SETLOCAL enabledelayedexpansion
SET "RESULT=!VARIAB:"=!"
ECHO(!RESULT!
ENDLOCAL
)
)
)>newfile.txt
GOTO :EOF
This should fix your problem. I changed the detination file to suit my system. If you want to append to the destination file, use >> in place of >

How to read from a .properties file using batch script

I have a requirement where i'd like to read values from a .properties file
my properties file test.properties content
file=jaguar8
extension=txt
path=c:\Program Files\AC
From the above file I need to fetch jaguar or anything after =
Please help me. Thanks
For /F "tokens=1* delims==" %%A IN (test.properties) DO (
IF "%%A"=="file" set file=%%B
)
echo "%file%"
hope this could help
#echo off
FOR /F "tokens=1,2 delims==" %%G IN (test.properties) DO (set %%G=%%H)
echo %file%
echo %extension%
echo %path%
Note that there is no space after %%H. Else this causes a space to be appended, to file paths for example, and will cause file not found errors when the variables from the property files are used as part of a file path.Struggled for hours because of this!
A solution with support for comments (# style). See comments in code for explanation.
test.properties:
# some comment with = char, empty line below
#invalid.property=1
some.property=2
some.property=3
# not sure if this is supported by .properties syntax
text=asd=f
properties-read.bat:
#echo off
rem eol stops comments from being parsed
rem otherwise split lines at the = char into two tokens
for /F "eol=# delims== tokens=1,*" %%a in (test.properties) do (
rem proper lines have both a and b set
rem if okay, assign property to some kind of namespace
rem so some.property becomes test.some.property in batch-land
if NOT "%%a"=="" if NOT "%%b"=="" set test.%%a=%%b
)
rem debug namespace test.
set test.
rem do something useful with your vars
rem cleanup namespace test.
rem nul redirection stops error output if no test. var is set
for /F "tokens=1 delims==" %%v in ('set test. 2^>nul') do (
set %%v=
)
output from set test. (see above):
test.some.property=3
test.text=asd=f
The most important parts are:
the for-loop with the eol and delims option and
the if-checks that both variables %%a and %%b are set.
What you do in the for-loop with the variable and its value is certainly up to you - assigning to some prefixed variables was just an example. The namespacing approach avoids that any other global variable gets overridden.
For example if you have something like appdata defined in your .properties file.
I'm using this to get rid of an extra config.bat and instead using one .properties file for both the java app and some support batch files.
Works for me, but certainly not every edge case is covered here, so improvements welcome!
Try this
echo off
setlocal
FOR /F "tokens=3,* delims=.=" %%G IN (test.properties) DO ( set %%G=%%H )
rem now use below vars
if "%%G"=="file"
set lfile=%%H
if "%%G"=="path"
set lpath=%%H
if "%%G"=="extension"
set lextention=%%H
echo %path%
endlocal
I know this is ancient post but I would like to expand on toschug's great answer.
If the path in the .properties file would be defined as %~dp0 or any other variable that needs to be expanded first before using it, I recommend doing it the following way:
In the .properties file:
path=%~dp0
In the batch file you can then use it the following way (the code is to be used between the two for(s) defining one <=> cleanup one):
if "!test.path!" NEQ "" (
echo Not expanded path: !test.path!
call :expand !test.path! test.path
)
echo test.path expanded: !test.path!
pause
:expand
SET "%~2=%~1"
GOTO :EOF
Don't forget to use (at the start of the batch file):
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
you can try this:
#ECHO OFF
#SETLOCAL
FOR /F "tokens=1* delims==" %%A IN (test.properties) DO (
ECHO %%A = %%B
)
#ENDLOCAL

Store file output into variable

I want to store the output of text file into a variable, so I can pass the whole file as parameter.
I am using Windows 2003 Server.
The text files have multiple lines like:
10.20.210.100 fish
10.20.210.101 rock
I was using:
Set /P var=<file.txt
It reads only the first line of the file.
I tried with FOR loop also but it assigned only the last line to the variable.
There is no simple way to get the complete content of a file into one variable.
A variable has a limit of ~8100 length.
And it is complicated to get CR/LF into a variable
But with a FOR-loop you can get each single line.
Try a look at batch script read line by line
EDIT:
To get each line in a single variable you can use this
#echo off
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
set n=0
for /f "delims=" %%a IN (example.txt) do (
set /a n+=1
set "line[!n!]=%%a"
echo line[!n!] is '%%a'
)
set line
or to get all in only one variable (without CR/LF)
#echo off
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
set "line="
for /f "delims=" %%a IN (example.txt) do (
set "line=!line! %%a"
)
echo !line!
Jeb’s script is working perfect, But if you echo %line% it contains each line no of line in file times. And if you use echo !Line! ,it contain one !line! also with other line. I did a little modification in script and now I am getting expected result.
#echo off
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
set "line="
for /f "delims=" %%a IN (example.txt) do (
set "line1=%%a"
set "line=!line1! and %%a"
)
echo !line!
or
echo %line%
Now you will get same result in bot cases.

How can I load the contents of a text file into a batch file variable?

I need to be able to load the entire contents of a text file and load it into a variable for further processing.
How can I do that?
Here's what I did thanks to Roman Odaisky's answer.
SetLocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set content=
for /F "delims=" %%i in (test.txt) do set content=!content! %%i
echo %content%
EndLocal
If your set command supports the /p switch, then you can pipe input that way.
set /p VAR1=<test.txt
set /? |find "/P"
The /P switch allows you to set the value of a variable to a line of
input entered by the user. Displays the specified promptString before
reading the line of input. The promptString can be empty.
This has the added benefit of working for un-registered file types (which the accepted answer does not).
Use for, something along the lines of:
set content=
for /f "delims=" %%i in ('filename') do set content=%content% %%i
Maybe you’ll have to do setlocal enabledelayedexpansion and/or use !content! rather than %content%. I can’t test, as I don’t have any MS Windows nearby (and I wish you the same :-).
The best batch-file-black-magic-reference I know of is at http://www.rsdn.ru/article/winshell/batanyca.xml. If you don’t know Russian, you still could make some use of the code snippets provided.
You can use:
set content=
for /f "delims=" %%i in ('type text.txt') do set content=!content! %%i
Can you define further processing?
You can use a for loop to almost do this, but there's no easy way to insert CR/LF into an environment variable, so you'll have everything in one line. (you may be able to work around this depending on what you need to do.)
You're also limited to less than about 8k text files this way. (You can't create a single env var bigger than around 8k.)
Bill's suggestion of a for loop is probably what you need. You process the file one line at a time:
(use %i at a command line %%i in a batch file)
for /f "tokens=1 delims=" %%i in (file.txt) do echo %%i
more advanced:
for /f "tokens=1 delims=" %%i in (file.txt) do call :part2 %%i
goto :fin
:part2
echo %1
::do further processing here
goto :eof
:fin
To read in an entire multi-line file but retain newlines, you must reinsert them. The following (with '<...>' replaced with a path to my file) did the trick:
#echo OFF
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
set N=^
REM These two empty lines are required
set CONTENT=
set FILE=<...>
for /f "delims=" %%x in ('type %FILE%') do set "CONTENT=!CONTENT!%%x!N!"
echo !CONTENT!
ENDLOCAL
You would likely want to do something else rather than echo the file contents.
Note that there is likely a limit to the amount of data that can be read this way so your mileage may vary.
Create a file called "SetFile.bat" that contains the following line with no carriage return at the end of it...
set FileContents=
Then in your batch file do something like this...
#echo off
copy SetFile.bat + %1 $tmp$.bat > nul
call $tmp$.bat
del $tmp$.bat
%1 is the name of your input file and %FileContents% will contain the contents of the input file after the call. This will only work on a one line file though (i.e. a file containing no carriage returns). You could strip out/replace carriage returns from the file before calling the %tmp%.bat if needed.
for /f "delims=" %%i in (count.txt) do set c=%%i
echo %c%
pause

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