CODEWITHSUNDEEP
batch-file
Antonio Mailtraq
Antonio Mailtraq

Reputation: 1407

Removing carriage returns from a text file using a DOS batch file

In one text file I have this lines:

2014-10-09 00:00:00.000;1663;2014-10-09 12:38:46.000;A;"
                    ";0;0;E/272

2014-10-09 00:00:00.000;1663;2014-10-09 12:38:46.000;A;"
                    ";0;0;D/275

I need using a DOS batch file this new output:

2014-10-09 00:00:00.000;1663;2014-10-09 12:38:46.000;A;"";0;0;E/272

2014-10-09 00:00:00.000;1663;2014-10-09 12:38:46.000;A;"";0;0;D/275

And I have tried this solution:

for /f "delims=" %%a in (oldfile.txt) do (
echo/|set /p ="%%a%"
)>>newfile.txt

But the output is wrong, I don't have two lines in txt newfile but only one line:

2014-10-09 00:00:00.000;1663;2014-10-09 12:38:46.000;A;"";0;0;E/2722014-10-09 00:00:00.000;1663;2014-10-09 12:38:46.000;A;"";0;0;D/275

What am I missing?

What's wrong with this code?

Thank you in advance.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 6631

Answers (2)

BetterLate
BetterLate

Reputation: 1

Empty lines may get ignored, but can be re appended by using echo.

for /f "usebackq delims=" %%A in ("%INTEXTFILE%") do (
    set "Line=%%A"
    if not "!FirstLine!"=="" (
        if "!Line:~0,22!"=="!BeginSecondLine!" (
            set "FirstLine=!FirstLine!!Line:~20!"
            echo !FirstLine!>>"%OUTTEXTFILE%"
            echo. >>"%OUTTEXTFILE%"
            set "Line="
        ) else (
            echo !FirstLine!>>"%OUTTEXTFILE%"
            echo. >>"%OUTTEXTFILE%"
            set "FirstLine="
        )
    )
    if no    t "!Line!"=="" (
        if "!Line:~-1!"=="!EndFirstLine!" (
            set "FirstLine=!Line!"
        ) else (
            echo !Line!>>"%OUTTEXTFILE%"
            echo. >>"%OUTTEXTFILE%"
        )
    )
)

Upvotes: 0

Mofi
Mofi

Reputation: 49186

  1. New lines in double quoted values are absolutely valid in CSV files.

  2. Why not using a text editor which supports Perl regular expression replaces?
    For example running a Perl regular expression replace using as search string (?<=")\s+(?=";) and an empty string as replace string would do the job.

  3. There are console applications written for replacing strings in files. See
    How can you find and replace text in a file using the Windows command-line environment?

But if you want to do this with a batch file for some unknown reason, take a look on batch code below working for your example.

@echo on
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set "INTEXTFILE=oldfile.txt"

if not exist "%INTEXTFILE%" goto EndBatch

set "OUTTEXTFILE=newfile.txt"
if exist "%OUTTEXTFILE%" del "%OUTTEXTFILE%"

set "FirstLine="
set "EndFirstLine=""
set "BeginSecondLine=                    ";"

for /f "usebackq delims=" %%A in ("%INTEXTFILE%") do (
    set "Line=%%A"
    if not "!FirstLine!"=="" (
        if "!Line:~0,22!"=="!BeginSecondLine!" (
            set "FirstLine=!FirstLine!!Line:~20!"
            echo !FirstLine!>>"%OUTTEXTFILE%"
            set "Line="
        ) else (
            echo !FirstLine!>>"%OUTTEXTFILE%"
        )
        set "FirstLine="
    )
    if not "!Line!"=="" (
        if "!Line:~-1!"=="!EndFirstLine!" (
            set "FirstLine=!Line!"
        ) else (
            echo !Line!>>"%OUTTEXTFILE%"
        )
    )
)

:EndBatch
endlocal

Empty lines are removed by this batch file, too. This cannot be avoided as command for ignores empty lines on parsing the file.

Upvotes: 1

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