CODEWITHSUNDEEP
batch-file
Boone
Boone

Reputation: 167

Batch command to pull variables from a text file

Is there any command for a batch file to read a text file, and use the content as a variable? A while back I'd heard about a command that could read the last line of a text file and assign this as a variable in the batch file, but I can't remember what the command was or if it even worked. Is there such a command? I've tried things like:

Set /a var < directory.bat\file.txt

which returns a value of 0, or

Set /p var < directory.bat\file.txt

or

Set /i var < directory.bat\file.txt

, which gives the error "the syntax of a command is incorrect. Am I on the right track with "set" commands, or is there a completely different command for this (or will I have to write an entire different, multi-line script to do this)?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 39003

Answers (4)

Riccardo La Marca
Riccardo La Marca

Reputation: 895

@echo off
set str=^&Type file.txt
echo %str%

Upvotes: 2

Magoo
Magoo

Reputation: 80023

The classic form of this operation is

for /f "delims=" %%a in (file.txt) do set var=%%a

which will set var to the entire contents of the last non-blank line.

for /f "delims=" %%a in (file.txt) do set var=%%a&goto next
:next

will set var to the first non-blank line

for /f "delims=" %%a in (file.txt) do set var=%%a&call :process
...
:process
 echo var=%var%
goto :eof

will execute a subroutine with var set to each non-blank line in turn.

Without sample data, it's not possible to detemine which form suits your situation.

Upvotes: 4

brianadams
brianadams

Reputation: 233

here's an awk command you can use 

@echo off

for /f "tokens=*" %%a in ('awk "!/^$/{s=$0}END{print s}" myFile.txt') do (
    echo last line is %%a
)

you can download awk here or here

Upvotes: 1

unclemeat
unclemeat

Reputation: 5197

set /p var=<directory\file.txt

that will grab the first line out of a text document.

Upvotes: 3

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