CODEWITHSUNDEEP
batch-filedelayedvariableexpansion
Mr. Sr. J. Doe
Mr. Sr. J. Doe

Reputation: 13

How to avoid delayed expansion removing the exclamation marks in file names?

How to avoid delayed expansion removing the exclamation marks in file names?

@echo off

Set path="C:\example"
Set chars=a b c

cd /d %path%

setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for %%A in (%chars%) do (
    set filesList=
    for /F "tokens=* delims=" %%B in ('dir %%A^* /a-d /b') do (
        set filesList=!filesList!"%%~nxB"
    )
    if not "!filesList!"=="" (
        echo %%A filesList: !filesList!
    )
)
endlocal

Upvotes: 1

Views: 873

Answers (1)

jeb
jeb

Reputation: 82247

As Mofi suggested, you could disable delayed expansion and use 

call set filesList=%%filesList%%"%%~nxB"

But that fails when there are carets in your filenames.

The problem in your code is the fact, that FOR parameters can only be safely expanded without delayed expansion mode.
Normally you use the toggline technic for this, like here.

setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion
for /F "delims=" %%B in ('dir %%A^* /a-d /b') do  ( 
    set "line=%%B"

    setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
    REM *** Process the content of line here
    echo !line!
    endlocal
)

But this only works, when you don't need to transfer the content of line out of the (inner) setlocal scope.

In your case, you tried to add the line content to a filesList variable outside of the scope. For this case you need to transfer the content of line over the scope end with a more or less complex technic, like
Make an environment variable survive ENDLOCAL
Macro to return multiple variables across endlocal barriers

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions