How to extract a specific field from output of tasklist on the windows command line

Question

I ran the following command on the windows command prompt

C:>tasklist /fi "Imagename eq BitTorrent.exe"

The output of which is

Image Name            PID      Session Name       Session #    Mem Usage
==================  ======== =================   ===========   =========
BitTorrent.exe        6164      Console                   3     24,144K

I need to extract only one field, the PID, i.e. the number 6164 from the above output.

How do I achieve this ? More generally, how do I extract a subset(1/more) of the fields from the output of a command on the windows command line ?

score 15 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 22 '12 at 16:33

15

Similar to previous answers, but uses specific switches in tasklist to skip header and behave correctly irrespective of spaces in image names:

for /f "tokens=2 delims=," %F in ('tasklist /nh /fi "imagename eq BitTorrent.exe" /fo csv') do @echo %~F

(as run directly from cmd line, if run from batch replace %F with %%F

answered Nov 22 '12 at 16:33

wmz

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All 3 answers work for me, but i dont understand them :( Can someone explain their code fragment or point me to documentation for 'for /f' , 'tokens', 'delims' – ashish makani Nov 23 '12 at 05:53
Run `'command'` in parens, then for each line of it's output: tokenize (the line) with comma being delimiter and put a second token into %variable (`%F`) and then run `echo` with a given variable value (sans quotes, that's what tilde is for). For more general explanation on `for` syntax (including `for /f`) simply do `help for` at command line – wmz Nov 23 '12 at 16:13
@ashishmakani here is the documentation: https://ss64.com/nt/for_f.html – Zeeshan Dec 29 '17 at 04:15

npocmaka · Answer 2 · 2012-11-22T09:21:16.630

10

the easiest way is with using WMIC:

c:\>wmic process where caption="BitTorrent.exe" get  ProcessId

EDIT: As the WMIC is not part of home editions of windows:

for /f "tokens=1,2 delims= " %A in ('tasklist /fi ^"Imagename eq cmd.exe^" ^| find ^"cmd^"') do echo %B

Here is used CMD of the caption.You can change it in the find and tasklist parameters. If this used in batch file you'll need %%B and %%A

edited Nov 22 '12 at 09:21

answered Nov 22 '12 at 08:13

npocmaka

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i cant install anything on the machine & have to use the standard windows install. – ashish makani Nov 22 '12 at 08:52
wmic is a standard command for windows.Except home editions...I'll add other approches in my answer anyway. – npocmaka Nov 22 '12 at 08:54
PS: Remember you need to set right the tokens if the app filename contain spaces. – ElektroStudios Nov 22 '12 at 09:47
@Elektro Hacker - yes .If you need another field you'll have to define more tokens and access the right one.`tasklist -v` has 9 fields so the maximum possible tokens are 9 and the last filed will be accessible with `%%H` if the first token is `%%A` – npocmaka Nov 22 '12 at 10:01
1

@npocmaka, did you make a minor typo in your comment above ? For 9 fields, wont the 9th field be %%I & not %%H ? – ashish makani Nov 23 '12 at 05:49
WMIC doesnt do what we need if there is more than one proccess with the same name... – Raul Chiarella Aug 26 '21 at 18:28
Yo bro but you command prints three lines. How do i print only the third line? – Raul Chiarella Aug 26 '21 at 18:42

ElektroStudios · Answer 3 · 2012-11-22T09:46:52.333

3

You can use wmic command to not filter the output:

wmic process where name="BitTorrent.exe" get processid | MORE +1

UPDATE: Another way:

@Echo OFF
FOR /F "tokens=2" %%# in ('tasklist /fi "Imagename eq winamp.exe" ^| MORE +3') do (Echo %%#)
Pause&Exit

PS: Remember you need to set right the tokens if the app filename contain spaces.

edited Nov 22 '12 at 09:46

answered Nov 22 '12 at 09:37

ElektroStudios

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How to extract a specific field from output of tasklist on the windows command line

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