printing a paragraph in windows batch - windows

Question

The following code works pretty well printing the paragraph
#echo off
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion
set "skip="
for /f "delims=:" %%N in (
'findstr /x /n ":::BeginText" "%~f0"'
) do if not defined skip set skip=%%N
>test.txt (
for /f "skip=%skip% tokens=*" %%A in (
'findstr /n "^" "%~f0"'
) do (
set "line=%%A"
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
echo(!line:*:=!
endlocal
)
)
type test.txt
exit /b
:::BeginText
This text will be exactly preserved with the following limitations:
1) Each line will be terminated by CR LF even if original has only LF.
2) Lines are limited in length to approximately 8191 bytes.
Special characters like ^ & < > | etc. do not cause a problem.
Empty lines are preserved!
;Lines beginning with ; are preserved.
:::Leading : are preserved
Is there a way to add a text marker like :::Endtext so that only the paragraph between
:::BeginText and :::Endtext is printed.

Answer 1

Sure :-)
And you can embed multiple named paragraphs within your script and selectively write them by using a unique label for each.
The named text can appear anywhere within the script as long as GOTO and/or EXIT /B prevent the text from being executed.
The script below encapsulates the logic in a :printParagraph routine for convenience.
#echo off
setlocal disableDelayedExpansion
goto :start
:::BeginText1
Paragraph 1
is preserved
Bye!
:::EndText
:start
echo Print paragraph 1 directly to screen
echo ------------------------------------------
call :printParagraph 1
echo ------------------------------------------
echo(
echo(
call :printParagraph 2 >test.txt
echo Write paragraph 2 to a file and type file
echo ------------------------------------------
type test.txt
echo ------------------------------------------
echo(
echo(
echo Print paragraph 3 directly to screen
echo ------------------------------------------
call :printParagraph 3
echo ------------------------------------------
echo(
echo(
exit /b
:::BeginText2
This is paragraph 2
Pure poetry
:::EndText
:printParagraph
set "skip="
for /f "delims=:" %%N in (
'findstr /x /n ":::BeginText%~1" "%~f0"'
) do if not defined skip set skip=%%N
set "end="
for /f "delims=:" %%N in (
'findstr /x /n ":::EndText" "%~f0"'
) do if %%N gtr %skip% if not defined end set end=%%N
for /f "skip=%skip% tokens=*" %%A in (
'findstr /n "^" "%~f0"'
) do (
for /f "delims=:" %%N in ("%%A") do if %%N geq %end% exit /b
set "line=%%A"
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
echo(!line:*:=!
endlocal
)
exit /b
:::BeginText3
One more...
...for good measure
:::EndText