I am attempting to check whether a sub-string occurs within a string. If it does then I dont want to perform the 'if' conditions.
My Problem: My code that checks whether a sub-string occurs within a string is not working. It always thinks that a sub-string does NOT occur within a string when it actually does.
How can I check whether a sub-string occurs within a string in batch?
SET filePath="c:/users/abc/dir1/subdir"
SET excludeDir1="c:/users/abc/dir1"
SET excludeDir2="c:/users/abc/dir2"
REM // If the string excludeDir1 does not occur in filePath AND If the string excludeDir2 does not occur in filePath: continue
if /i NOT x%filePath:%excludeDir1%=%==x%filePath% if /i NOT x%filePath:%excludeDir2%=%==x%filePath% (
REM // Do stuff
)
You almost have it. Just remember that the parsing of the lines in a Batch file is performed from left to right, so there is no chance to nest two %variable% expansions. The way to solve it is combining one %normal% expansion and one !delayed! expansion:
REM Next command is required in order to use Delayed !variable! Expansion
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
SET filePath="c:/users/abc/dir1/subdir"
SET excludeDir1="c:/users/abc/dir1"
SET excludeDir2="c:/users/abc/dir2"
REM // If the string excludeDir1 does not occur in filePath AND If the string excludeDir2 does not occur in filePath: continue
if /i NOT "!filePath:%excludeDir1%=!" == "%filePath%" if /i NOT "!filePath:%excludeDir2%=!" == "%filePath%" (
REM // Do stuff
)
Use powershell or install Cygwin and use a real POSIX/UNIX/LINUX shell like bash. You will have much better success testing strings and file paths with BASENAME and FILENAME and utilities like 'grep' and 'find' than what is available to you with CMD.EXE. You will also find plenty of stackoverflow examples from 10+ years ago on how to do all of that stuff in a proper shell.
Related
I have a string in a batch file, of the structure
[[status]]:{"01bcd123-1234-5678-0000-abcdefghijkl": "11"}
I need to get just the 01bcd123-1234-5678-0000-abcdefghijkl out of it, but trying to use " as a delimiter doesn't turn out well. \ and ^ don't seem to escape it properly.
set i=1
set "x!i!=%x:"=" & set /A i+=1 & set "x!i!=%"
Is what I have with x being the whole string, attempting to parse it into x1, x2 etc with " as the delimiter.
What is a proper way to split this string, using " as the delimiter?
Edit: Powershell tag is because I am running the script as part of a larger orchestration in Powershell and could export the functionality of the batch script into it if necessary.
Here are two approaches. The first one doesn't mess with the for syntax format, but it's risky - too much dependence on the string (the quotes are actually stripped by %%~). The second one is an ugly non-intuitive syntax, but actually delimits by quotes:
set "string=[[status]]:{"01bcd123-1234-5678-0000-abcdefghijkl": "11"}"
for /f "tokens=2 delims=:{" %%a in ("%string%") do #echo %%~a
for /f tokens^=2delims^=^" %%a in ("%string%") do #echo %%a
Well, the self-expanding code you have posted works fine, given that you have got delayed expansion enabled, by having put the statement setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion placed before. The string of interest is then stored in variable x2. Note that when the script terminates, x2 (like all the other x# variables as well) is no longer available since an implicit endlocal is executed then. To avoid that, place endlocal & set "x2=%x2%" in the last line:
#echo off
rem // Define string to parse:
set "x=[[status]]:{"01bcd123-1234-5678-0000-abcdefghijkl": "11"}"
rem // Enable delayed expansion:
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
rem // Initialise index counter:
set i=1
rem // Split string using self-expanding code:
set "x!i!=%x:"=" & set /A i+=1 & set "x!i!=%" & rem // (unbalanced `"`!)
rem // Display all `x#` variables:
set x
rem // Make `x2` survive the `endlocal` barrier:
endlocal & set "x2=%x2%"
rem // Return the retrieved value:
echo(%x2%
However, I would most probably use a for /F loop, but not with " as delimiter since the syntax appears quite odd then; rather I would use :, {, } and SPACE as delimiters. But I would remove the prefix [[status]] in advance:
#echo off
rem // Define string to parse:
set "x=[[status]]:{"01bcd123-1234-5678-0000-abcdefghijkl": "11"}"
rem /* At first, split off everything up to the first occurrence of `]]`;
rem if there is no such prefix, there is no harm, because nothing happens;
rem then extract the first token that is delimited by `:`, `{`, `}` or space;
rem that way there may even be spaces around the `:` or around `{` or `}`;
rem then return it with surrounding quotation marks removed (`~`-modifier): */
for /F "tokens=1 eol=: delims=:{} " %%I in ("%x:*]]=%") do echo(%%~I
N. B.:
The odd-looking syntax echo( is not a typo, it is actually the only safe way to echo an arbitrary string (even on, off or /?); take a look at this external thread for more details.
Since you tagged PowerShell, you can use the following regex, but I am not sure you want PowerShell based on the question.
[regex]::Match('[[status]]:{"01bcd123-1234-5678-0000-abcdefghijkl": "11"}','(?<=")[^"]+(?=")').Value
Split regex can also work:
('[[status]]:{"01bcd123-1234-5678-0000-abcdefghijkl": "11"}' -split '"')[1]
If you stick with a batch file, Stephan's helpful answer is definitely the simplest and fastest solution.
Needless to say, if you port your batch file to PowerShell, you'll have vastly more functionality at your disposal.
You can even harness that functionality from a batch file via PowerShell's CLI, by calling powershell.exe (Windows PowerShell) or pwsh.exe (POwerShell Core), but that comes with two caveats:
Doing so creates a PowerShell child process, whose startup time is not insignificant.
Getting nested quoting right can be a challenge, as shown below.
Here's a solution that calls PowerShell's CLI from a batch file, applying the -split technique from AdminOfThings' helfpul answer; again, this solution would be overkill in the case at hand, but the approach may be of interest if you need to perform tasks that simply cannot be done in the batch language or would be too cumbersome.
#echo off
setlocal
:: # The input text.
set txt=[[status]]:{"01bcd123-1234-5678-0000-abcdefghijkl": "11"}
:: # Call the PowerShell CLI to extract the token of interest and save the
:: # result in variable %id%.
:: # In PowerShell code, the equivalent would be:
:: # $id = ($txt -split '"')[1]
for /f %%i in ('powershell -noprofile -c "('%txt:"=\"%' -split '\""')[1]"') do set id=%%i
:: # Echo the result.
echo %id%
Note the need to \-escape the " chars. embedded in %txt%, via substitution %txt:"=\"%, and the need for an additional " char. after \" in '\""' so as to prevent the for command from breaking.
I have a file as "RAAAAAAV.KKK9.Z01_YYYYMMDDhhmmss". I want to remove the last part after the underscore"_" using a one liner dos command. Please help.
Output required:
RAAAAAAV.KKK9.Z01
The following works
#echo off
set var=RAAAAAAV.KKK9.Z01_YYYYMMDDhhmmss
set "var=%var:_="&rem %
set var
To rename a specific file:
ren "RAAAAAAV.KKK9.Z01_20151009231015" *.Z01
To rename all files with extension like Z01_timestamp:
ren *.Z01_?????????????? *.Z01
To rename all files where the beginning of the extension is unknown:
for %F in (*.???_??????????????) do #for /f "delims=_" %X in ("%~xF") do #ren "%F" "%~nF%X"
If used in a batch script, then percents must be doubled:
#echo off
for %%F in (*.???_??????????????) do for /f "delims=_" %%X in ("%%~xF") do ren "%%F" "%%~nF%%X"
EDIT - 2015-10-10
If you really want to have precise control over which files get renamed, then you can use my JREN.BAT regular expression renaming utility - a hybrid JScript/batch script that runs natively on any Windows machine from XP onward. The following simple one liner strips off the underscore and timestamp from any file that has an extension consisting of any combination of letters and digits, followed by an underscore, followed by a 14 digit timestamp.
jren "(\.[A-Z0-9]+)_\d{14}$" $1 /i
Maybe already late, but I will share my founding anyway for benefit to others.
You can use batch sub-procedure/function
:leftStr STRING SEPARATOR RESULT_VAR
::get left string before some specific SEPARATOR
set "STRING=%~1" get arg1
set "RIGHT=%STRING:*%~2=%" anything after arg2
set "%~3=!STRING:%~2%RIGHT%=!" strip that substr
exit /b
Then you can call it from other places, works even inside for loop with delayedExpansion enabled.
..
call :leftStr "left_right" "_" varname
echo !varname!
#rem varname = left
note: this is not a fancy function, no error checking or such. You'd better make sure your input string, separator, return_var is already valid or no conflict with any other.
EDIT: forgot to mention, this is for arbitrary length string and separator, for a simple, fixed length you can just use %var:~-N1,N2% (with negative N1)
Currently I have a loop that runs through a list of items and copies them to a directory (archive). However, one of the items in the list (which has a global variable in the path-name) is being interpreted 'literally' (as text instead of code).
I know usually you can just escape the line via (^^) to have it interpreted as code instead of text, but evidently I'm doing something wrong here, because it's not working...
The item in the my.list (with the escape in it) that is having issues is:
location\foo^^%date:~0,3%*.zip
The code I'm using is...
for /f "delims=" %%a in (my.list) do (
echo "%%a"
)
Echo's
"location\foo^^%date:~0,3%*.zip"
Instead of
location\fooMON*.zip
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
You are confused as to when you need to escape a character.
Some characters have special meaning ("code" as you describe it). Often times you can escape the character such that it is interpretted as a literal (text) instead of "code".
The most frequent method to escape a character within Windows CMD.EXE is to prefix it with a single ^ character. Sometimes a string is parsed twice, which can require an escape sequence of ^^^, (or perhaps ^^ when dealing with ! when delayed expansion is enabled). More rounds of parsing require ever more ^ characters. It can quickly become confusing, and requires practice to get the hang of it.
But your situation is completely different - It cannot be solved by escaping. You have "code" within your FOR variable, and you want it to be interpreted as such. But instead, it is being interpreted as text. In order to understand why, you must understand the order in which various stages of batch parsing occur. You could refer to How does the Windows Command Interpreter (CMD.EXE) parse scripts?, but it is pretty advanced stuff that takes time to digest.
Here is a crude synopsis showing when various types of expansion occur. (Note - these step numbers do not match up exactly with the phase numbers of the linked answer)
1) Parameter expansion - %1
2) Normal variable expansion - %var%
3) FOR variable expansion - %%A
4) Delayed variable expansion - !var!
5) CALL expansion - repeat steps 1) and 2) if CALL involved
You want your %date:~0,3% string to undergo normal (percent) expansion. Your FOR loop reads the line of text verbatim, without any expansion. The first time the parser sees your "code" is at step 3) when the %%a FOR variable is expanded. You can see that this is already too late to get
%date:~0,3% to expand the way you want.
You have two choices to solve your problem. But beware - each of these solutions potentially add new issues that may need to be solved.
I am assuming the ^^ is your naive attempt to force expansion of the embedded "code". The ^^ should be removed from your list file.
Option 1: Add an extra round of normal expansion by using CALL
for /f "delims=" %%a in (my.list) do call echo "%%a"
But now you have a potential problem that you might have a % literal in your list that you do not want to be expanded. Percents within batch scripts cannot be escaped with ^. Instead you escape a percent by doubling it as %%. So if you have percent literals in your list, they must be doubled.
Note that the original code that was posted with the question was significantly more complicated. It included an IF statement that referenced %%a. You cannot CALL an IF or FOR command. The solution is to CALL a subroutine, passing the value, and include the complex logic in the subroutine.
for /f "delims=" %%a in (my.list) do call :processValue "%%a" >>Logs\xfer.log
exit /b
:processValue
echo Attempting to archive %1...
if exist "c:\%~1" (
echo f | xcopy "c:\%%a" "c:\Lucas\archive\%~1" /E /C /H /R /Y
if %errorlevel%==0 (
echo ...%1 added to archive for transfer
echo.
) else (
echo ERROR: %1 not added to archive
echo.
)
) else (
echo ERROR: %1 Not found on client computer
echo.
)
Option 2: Use delayed expansion
Enable delayed expansion, and change your list to use !date:~0,3! instead of %date:~0,3%. Delayed expansion occurs after FOR variable expansion, so it will be expanded properly.
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
for /f "delims=" %%a in (my.list) do echo "%%a"
But now you have a potential problem that you might have a ! literal in your list that you do not want to be expanded. You can preserve ! literals by escaping them as ^!.
I don't think this is possible, but I'd like to be able to do this, or possibly use an alternative method...
I have a batch file;
for /f "usebackq tokens=*" %%a in (`wmic process get description, commandline`) do (
*Some Code*
)
I need to be able to take the two answers from each line, and use them individually (basically, use the description to check if a process is running, then after I've killed the process and done some file clean-up work, reload the original process including any command line parameters.
One example of the output for a process I may need to end/re-open might be;
"C:\some folder\some other folder\some_application" -cmd_parameter process_name.exe
Note that the descrption is clearly defined by multiple spaces..
So is there a way of saying
for /f "tokens=* delims= " <--(The delims is TWO spaces, not space OR space)
Another way that may be better could be to replcae all instances of multiple spaces with a special character (i.e. one that is never used in a proces or path), and then use that as my delimeter... Though I don't know if that is even possible..
I'm also open to any alternative methods, as long as I can get the process name (to check against a pre-defined list of processes, and the full path to the exe, plus any command line paramteres given.
Thanks all
In direct answer to you question: No, you cannot specify 2 spaces as a delimiter. You can use SET search and replace to change 2 spaces into some unique character, but determining a unique character that will never appear in your description or command line is easier said then done.
A better alternative is to change the output format of WMIC to LIST - one value per line in the form of propertyName=Value. Each propery value can be stored in a variable, and then when the last property for a process is recorded you can take action using the variable values. WMIC output uses Unicode, and that results in a CarriageReturn character being appended to the end of each variable assignment. The CarriageReturn must be stripped to get the correct results.
#echo off
setlocal
for /f "tokens=1* delims==" %%A in ('"wmic process get description, commandline /format:list"') do (
if "%%A"=="CommandLine" (
set "cmd=%%B"
) else if "%%A"=="Description" (
set "desc=%%B"
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set "desc=!desc:~0,-1!"
set "cmd=!cmd:~0,-1!"
echo(
echo Do whatever you need to do with the description and command line.
echo description=!desc!
echo command line=!cmd!
endlocal
)
)
There are a few things you need to be careful of.
1) You could have multiple processes for the same image name. If you kill a process via the image name (description), then you will delete all of them. If you also restart it it based on the command line, then it will be killed again when the next process with the same name is killed. It is probably better to kill the process via the process ID.
2) If you know the image name (description) of the process, then you can restrict your output using the WMIC WHERE clause.
3) The command line reported by WMIC is not always reliable. The process is able to modify the value that is reported as the command line.
Here is a solution that retrieves the process ID and command line for a specific description.
EDIT - I fixed the code below
#echo off
setlocal
for /f "tokens=1* delims==" %%A in ('"wmic process where description='MyApp.exe' get processId, commandline /format:list"') do (
if "%%A"=="CommandLine" (
set "cmd=%%B"
) else if "%%A"=="ProcessId" (
set "id=%%B"
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set "id=!id:~0,-1!"
set "cmd=!cmd:~0,-1!"
echo(
echo Do whatever you need to do with the process id and command line.
echo process Id=!id!
echo command line=!cmd!
endlocal
)
)
Note - the WMIC WHERE clause uses SQL syntax. It can be made complex using AND and OR conditions, and it supports the LIKE operator using % and _ as wildcards. I believe the entire expression needs to be enclosed in double quotes when it becomes complex.
Foreword
I'd just like to add this for future readers, because I had this problem, solved it myself and I think it'll be useful just to show how to do this simply. Firstly, dbenham is absolutely correct in his answer that "No, you cannot specify 2 spaces as a delimiter.". Since you can't do it directly using the batch for loop, you can simply make your own that does the job. Again dbenham is correct in saying
"You can use SET search and replace to change 2 spaces into some unique character"
And thats somewhat similar to what I did (with some differences) but for completeness sake I think its good to have it on record. The thing is, simply setting all occurences of double spaces to some other character doesn't always solve the problem. Sometimes we have more than two spaces and what we really want is to delimit strings by more than one space. The problem I was trying to solve here is more like this (from the OP) Ricky Payne
"Another way that may be better could be to replcae all instances of multiple spaces with a special character (i.e. one that is never used
in a proces or path), and then use that as my delimeter... Though I
don't know if that is even possible.."
The answer to that is that It IS possible, and not hard at all. All you need is to be able to
A. loop over each character of the string
B. differentiate single from double (or more) spaces
C. turn a flag on when you encounter a double space
D. turn the double (or more) spaces into a special character or sequence of characters that you can delimit by.
the code
To do Exactly this, I coded this for my own use (edited for clarity):
FOR /F "tokens=* delims=*" %%G IN ('<command with one line output>') DO (SET
"LineString=%%G")
SET /A "tempindex=0"
:LineStringFOR
SET "currchar=!LineString:~%tempindex%,1!"
IF "!currchar!"=="" (goto :LineStringFOREND)
SET /A "tempindex=!tempindex!+1"
SET /A "BeforeSpacePosition=!tempindex!"
SET /A "AfterSpacePosition=!tempindex!+1"
IF NOT "!LineString:~%BeforeSpacePosition%,2!"==" " (goto :LineStringFOR)
:LineStringSUBFOR
IF "!LineString:~%BeforeSpacePosition%,2!"==" " (
SET LineString=!LineString:~0,%BeforeSpacePosition%!!LineString:~%AfterSpacePosition%!
GOTO :LineStringSUBFOR
) ELSE (
SET LineString=!LineString:~0,%BeforeSpacePosition%!;!LineString:~%AfterSpacePosition%!
GOTO :LineStringSUBFOREND
)
:LineStringSUBFOREND
GOTO :LineStringFOR
:LineStringFOREND
ECHO Final Result is "!LineString!"
So if your input (output of the command in the FOR or you can change that FOR loop to take in a string) was:
"a b c a b c"
The output should be in this format:
"a;b;c;a b c"
I have tested this on my own code. However, for my answer here I removed all of my comments and changed some variable names for clarity. If this code doesn't work after putting in your commands feel free to let me know and I'll update it but it SHOULD be working. Formatting on here might prevent a direct copy paste.
Just to show whats actually going on
The program flow is basically like this:
FOR each character
:TOP
grab the next character
set a variable to the current index
set another variable to the next index
IF this or the next character are not spaces, goto the TOP
:Check for 2 spaces again
IF this and the next character are both spaces then
get the string up to (but not including) the current index AS A
get the string after the current index AS B
set the string to A+B
goto Check for 2 spaces again
ELSE we have turned the double or more space into one space
get the string up to (but not including) the current index AS A
get the string after the current index AS B
set the string to A + <char sequence of choice for delimiting> + B
goto TOP to grab the next character
After all characters are looped over
RETURN the string here (or echo it out like I did)
Extra
dbenham says in his answer on this type of method that:
"You can use SET search and replace to change 2 spaces into some
unique character, but determining a unique character that will never
appear in your description or command line is easier said then done."
While this may have been true in the past, my yeilded that (at least for my method correct me if I'm wrong for other cases) you can in fact use a delimiter that definitely WON'T appear in your input. this is accomplished by using multicharacter delimiters. This doesn't allow you to use the standard FOR loop, however you can quite easily do this manually. This is described much more in depth here:
"delims=#+#" - more then 1 character as delimiter
Great thread!
This got me thinking and I came up with a slightly sideways solution that may work well for someone as it did for me.
As the original questions was for the WMIC command, and the output can be CSV format, why not just circumvent the space handling by using the /format:csv switch and setting a comma as the delimiter, and incorporating 'usebackq'?
Of course, this might not work if the data itself from WMIC has commas but waqs perfect in my instance where I wanted only the BootOptionOnWatchDog status
would look something like this:
FOR /F "usebackq skip=1 tokens=1-31 delims=," %a IN (`%windir%\system32\wbem\wmic computersystem list /format:csv`) DO echo %f
which returns:
BootOptionOnWatchDog
Normal boot
I ended using 'skip=2' which would return "Normal Boot"
btw, dont post here often hence posting as a guest, but thought it prudent to put this here as it was this post that helped me come to the answer above.
cheers
-steve (NZ)
What does this bat code do?
for /f %%i in ('dir /b Client\Javascript\*_min.js') do (
set n=%%~ni
set t=!n:~0,-4!
cp Client\Javascript\%%i build\Client\Javascript\!t!.js
)
What does %%~ni,~n:~0,-4!,%%i,!t! mean?
Keep in mind that in batch files, you need to escape percentage signs unless you're referring to arguments given to the batch file. Once you remove those, you get
for /f %i in ('dir /b Client\Javascript\*_min.js') do (
set n=%~ni
set t=!n:~0,-4!
cp Client\Javascript\%i build\Client\Javascript\!t!.js
)
%i is the declaration of a variable used to place the current file for has found. %~ni extracts the filename portion of %i. !n:~0,-4! uses delayed expansion to remove the last four characters from %n% (set in the previous line) !t! is simply delayed expansion of the %t% variable set in the previous line.
Delayed expansion is used because otherwise, the variables will be substituted as soon as the line is encountered, and future iterations will not re-expand the variable.
for /f %%i in ('dir /b Client\Javascript\*_min.js') do (
Iterate over every file in the Client\Javascript folder that match "*_min.js". Thedircommand andfor /f` are totally unneeded here, though and only complicate things, especially when file names contain spaces, commas and the like. A more robust and simpler alternative would be
for %%i in (Client\Javascript\*_min.js) do (
But that's just beside the point. People tend to write unelegant batch files sometimes, ignoring the pitfalls and common errors. That's just one example of that.
set n=%%~ni
Creates a variable n, containing the file name (without any directory information or extension) of the file currently processed. We remember that the for statement iterates over every file it finds. With this line starts what it does with those files.
set t=!n:~0,-4!
Creates a second variable, t, containing everything but the last four characters of the file name. This essentially strips away the "_min"
cp Client\Javascript\%%i build\Client\Javascript\!t!.js
Finally, this copies the original file to the directory build\Client\Javascript with the new name, just constructed. So a file like Client\Javascript\foo_min.js will be copied to Client\Javascript\foo.js. The !t! here is just a delayed-evaluated environment variable. More on that below. Here it should suffice that it just inserts the contents of said variable at that point in the line.
Again, bad practice here that will break in numerous interesting ways:
cp is not a command on Windows so this batch will assume cygwin, GNUWin32 or similar things installed. I tend to avoid having too many unneeded dependencies and stick to what Windows provides; in this case the copy command. Two bytes won't kill anyone here, I think.
No quotes are around either argument. Leads to interesting results when spaces start appearing in the file name. Not good, either.
As for why delayed expansion was used (! instead of % surrounding the variables: The for command consists of everything in the block delimited by parentheses here as well. The entire block is parsed at once and normal variable expansion takes place when a line/command is parsed. That would mean that every variable in the block would be evaluated before the loop even runs, leaving just the following:
for /f %%i in ('dir /b Client\Javascript\*_min.js') do (
set n=%%~ni
set t=
cp Client\Javascript\%%i build\Client\Javascript\.js
)
which is certainly not what you want in this case.
Delayed expansion is always needed when creating and using variables in a loop such as this. A workaround not needing delayed expansion would be to offload the loop interior into a subroutine:
for /f %%i in ('dir /b Client\Javascript\*_min.js') do call :process "%%i"
goto :eof
:process
set n=%~n1
set t=%n:0,-4%
copy "Client\Javascript\%~1" "build\Client\Javascript\%t%.js"
goto :eof
Since the subroutine is not a single "block" (something delimited by parentheses) it will be parsed line by line as usual. Therefore it's safe to use normal expansion instead of delayed expansion here.
A complete help for the FOR command can be found on the Microsoft TechNet site. See here for more information on delayed expansion :
// Pseudo code
for each file named *_min.js in the specified directory
n is set to the file name (*_min)
t is set to the file name, excluding the last 4 characters (*)
the file is copied and renamed t.js to the specified directory
%~ni expands to just the filename part of i.
!n:~0,-4! expands to all but the last four characters of n.
In general, help for at the command prompt will give an overview of the multitude of ways for can expand variables these days.