I have searched this across the net and found many codes for retrieving the entire line from a text or replacing the text with another but not for what i was looking for.
Using the For loop with the tokens would return on the set (word) separated with spaces.
I want to pull only a few characters from the line.
Eg: 12345qwerty67890
If this on in a text file i want to pull only '12345' and assign it to a variable.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
set HELP SET and try the following to get you started
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /f "tokens=*" %%a in (sample.txt) do (
set line=%%a
set chars=!line:~0,5!
echo !chars! --- !line!
)
At the command prompt, do help set. There you will find more information about the set command than you would ever want to know. The part you are interested in says:
May also specify substrings for an expansion.
%PATH:~10,5%
would expand the PATH environment variable, and then use only the 5
characters that begin at the 11th (offset 10) character of the expanded
result. If the length is not specified, then it defaults to the
remainder of the variable value. If either number (offset or length) is
negative, then the number used is the length of the environment variable
value added to the offset or length specified.
Of course, in order to use that kind of stuff with the for loop variable, you need to first get acquainted with the very peculiar way in which variables are expanded in Windows NT batch files. Let me know if you have problems with that, and I can add more information.
Related
Everyone.
I was wondering if it was possible to manipulate a variable multiple times in a single command?
For example, I want to SUBSTRING and REPLACE TEXT as the following commands:
:: Print the first 8 characters:
echo %TIME:~0:8%
:: Replace white spaces with zeros
echo %TIME: =0%
Desired output (Print Time without the milliseconds AND replace the whitespace on the left side with a 0)
09:15:23
So, is there away I could combine both variable manipulations into one single command?
I want to avoid storing the time in an additional variable and just print it out the way I desire (as mentioned above).
Each variable manipulation manipulates one variable, so your result requires two commands. You can, however, place the two commands in a single line and re-use the same variable in order to not initialize an additional variable. That is:
#echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "TIME=%TIME: =0%" & echo !TIME:~0,8! & set "TIME="
not possible in a single command, but possible in one line without setting another environment variable:
for /f "delims=.," %%a in ("%time: =0%") do echo %%a
You already know how to replace spaces with zeros. The for loop dissects the result, effectively removing the centiseconds. "Delims=.," takes care of the delimiter (, in some languages, . in others)
I've tried so sort this for the better part of the morning.
It is actually the same question as this one from 2013, to which no one replied:
batch script with FOR does not work
I'll do my best to format the code so that it is easy to follow and maybe I'll get an answer...
I am doing an archive project from our help desk ticket system.
For sorting purposes, the files will have the ticket number and the date.
However, the ticket number varies in length. To fix this, all ticket numbers are to be 6 digits, with the shorter numbers padded with preceding zeroes (i.e. 1234 becomes 001234).
I can get the ticket number, but I need to find its length to know how many zeroes to add.
This works:
echo off
set my_str=12345
set length=0
:Loop
if defined my_str (
set my_str=%my_str:~1%
set /A "length+=1"
goto Loop)
echo the string is %length% characters long
However, I get a bunch of ticket numbers in a list.
So, I read through this:
set statements don't appear to work in my batch file
And got lost reading this:
http://www.computing.net/howtos/show/batch-script-variable-expansion-win200-and-up/248.html
And I tried this:
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
echo off
for /f %%a IN (test.txt) do (
set my_str=%%a
set length=0
:Loop
if defined my_str (
set my_str=!my_str:~1!
set /A "length+=1"
echo %length%
goto Loop)
echo the string is %length% characters long
)
But it only reads the FIRST line of test.txt
Why does the FOR /F loop fail?
How do I get it to work?
You do not need to know the length of the ticket number string (when you can assure it won't be longer than 6 characters), you can prefix 5 zeros and split off the last 6 characters then:
set my_str=12345
set my_str=00000%my_str%
set my_str=%my_str:~-6%
echo %my_str%
If you still want to get the string length, consult this post.
You cannot use goto within the for body as goto breaks the for loop context. However, you can call a sub-routine within for, which in turn may contain goto.
Your batch script does exactly what you are describing: reading the first line of a number of files (in your case, only the one file) and determining the length of the first line. I.e. you got the inner part of your for loop wrong.
I don't know the correct solution either but I think that this page may be of some help to you:
http://ss64.com/nt/for_f.html
I hope that helps.
This seems like a XY problem. Instead of worrying about calculating the length of a string, just use the built-in substring methods to create a padded string.
#echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /f %%a IN (test.txt) do (
set my_str=000000%%a
#echo !my_str:~-6!
)
The end result echo'ed will be a six-digit number left-padded with zeroes.
I have a Windows batch file that uses the following command
for /r %%i in (dir) do #echo %server%%%~pi>>%filename%
where %server% is network location of the folder (other users use different drive mappings) and %filename% is the text file I am storing the results in (done this way for debugging purposes).
The folders getting listed in the file end up with a trailing backslash, that seems to be causing some issues when the file is read. How can I get rid of the trailing backslashes, without manually editing the created file?
A simpler solution is to append a dot and use a 2nd FOR loop to get the normalized path, name, and extension:
for /r %%i in (dir) do for %%F in ("%%~pi.") do echo %server%%%~pnxF>>%filename%
One big advantage is this does not require delayed expansion, so you don't have to worry about paths with ! getting corrupted when the FOR variable is expanded.
You can assign the directory name (with the trailing backslash) to a normal variable, and then echo it with substring variable expansion of 0,-1 to exclude the final character, all in a command list in the for-loop body:
for /r %%i in (dir) do #(set d=!server!%%~pi& echo !d:~0,-1!) >>!filename!
Here's the help on substring variable expansion from help set:
May also specify substrings for an expansion.
%PATH:~10,5%
would expand the PATH environment variable, and then use only the 5
characters that begin at the 11th (offset 10) character of the expanded
result. If the length is not specified, then it defaults to the
remainder of the variable value. If either number (offset or length) is
negative, then the number used is the length of the environment variable
value added to the offset or length specified.
%PATH:~-10%
would extract the last 10 characters of the PATH variable.
%PATH:~0,-2%
would extract all but the last 2 characters of the PATH variable.
Note that for this to work, you must enable enabledelayedexpansion and use the ! delimiter for the variable in the for-loop body, to ensure that it expands during loop processing, rather than during parsing of the loop. I also changed %filename% to !filename!, because it's good practice to always enable and use this feature, even when it's not essential.
I'm currently working on a mass user creation script through PowerShell and Batch. At the moment the script is 95 lines and is the largest script I've ever written in Batch.
I want the script to be as automated as possible and plan to give it to clients that need help creating a mass number of users. To do this, I have a 21 line settings file and one of the variables that I need is the full domain name (This is needed for dsadd)
The problem with this is that users may have any number of variables for this - anywhere from two in testlabs to four in places like schools. I am so far able to separate the tokens however I need them all stored as variables like %%a, %%b and not to store everything as %%a. The number of tokens will be dynamic so I need some sort of solution to this. Something like this (Yes I know this is not the correct syntax):
if number of tokens=4 (
dsadd "cn=%%a,ou=%%b,dc=%DSuffix1%,dc=%DSuffix2%,dc=%DSuffix3%,dc=%Dsuffix4% )
In that line %%a and %%b are variables in another for loop later in the code that reads from a user list excel file. I would need something like that for anything from two tokens to four tokens. I don't mind if the solution to this is not purely BATCH however that is my preferred option.
Thanks.
EDIT: Here is the for loop I have at the moment, this is nested in another larger for loop that adds the users:
for /f "tokens=1,2,3,4 delims=." %%a in (Settings.ini) do (
set L=22
if !L!=22 set DSuffix1=%%a&& set DSuffix2=%%b&& set DSuffix3=%%c&& set DSuffix4=%%d
)
The settings.ini file contains various settings such as the Exchange server and path to the user's home directory. The line I need to interpret is line 22 which looks like this:
DOMAINNAME.SUFFIX(.SUFFIX.SUFFIX.SUFFIX)
A real life example would be:
testlab.local
or
testlab.ghamilton.local
For a testlab the setting should only be the domainname and suffix although for others such as schools or institutions the number of domain suffixes can go up to four. I want to interpret this.
EDIT: Managed to indent code correctly, sorry.
If I understand you right, you have a string such as domain.foo.bar.baz and you want to change that to dc=domain,dc=foo,dc=bar,dc=baz.
How about this?
set domain=domain.foo.bar.baz
echo dc=%domain:.=,dc=%
That should echo this:
dc=domain,dc=foo,dc=bar,dc=baz
That %domain:.=,dc=% line is expanding the %domain% environment variable, but replacing all . with ,dc=. See http://ss64.com/nt/syntax-replace.html for more details.
To do string replacement in an environment variable, you do need the value to be in an environment variable first. Here's a script that will read line 22 from settings.ini, combined with the above technique:
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set L=0
for /f %%a in (settings.ini) do (
set /a L=!L! + 1
if !L! equ 22 (
set domain=%%a
echo dc=!domain:.=,dc=!
)
)
L is being used to count what line we're on. When we reach line 22, we set an environment variable to the value of the entire line (%%a), then do the string substitution as above (but with ! rather than % to take advantage of delayed expansion).
Of course instead of an echo, you would do something like
dsadd "cn=%cn%,ou=%ou%,dc=!domain:.=,dc=!"
Here's my little snippet to sort of demonstrate how to get the separate tokens (the delims are space and tab, but you can change them).
#echo off & setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /f "tokens=1,2,3,4" %%a in (test.txt) do (
set token1=%%a
set token2=%%b
set token3=%%c
set token4=%%d
set full=%%a%%b%%c%%d
)
set token
set full
pause>nul
test.txt contains:
first second third
The output was:
token1=first
token2=second
token3=fourth
full=firstsecondthird
So, you could judge how many tokens there is by something like
for /l %%i in (4,-1,1) do if not defined token%%i set amount=%%i
Or something along the same lines.
Hope that helps.
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)