1

Contents of Txt file:

OPS OPS lastmth Jun 2015
OPS OPS currmth Jul 2015

I would like have variables set as:

var1=OPS
var2=OPS
var3=lastmth
var4=Jun 2015

Is there a way in Windows Batch script to set variables like this?

Caspar Harmer
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ajay k
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  • Which part are you having trouble with? Parsing the input, or setting the variables? – shoover Jul 20 '15 at 20:30
  • @shoover I can read the line from file but it is setting each line as variables. like var1 = ops ops lastmth jun 2015 . Is there a way to take assign each words separated by space in the line to variables and do the same for next line too? – ajay k Jul 20 '15 at 20:34
  • So it sounds like you are having trouble with parsing the line into tokens. Try searching SO with terms like batch, parse, tokens. Or maybe this related question will help http://stackoverflow.com/questions/17453085/windows-batch-to-read-file-and-parse-lines-into-tokens-and-variables – shoover Jul 20 '15 at 20:41
  • Presumably those get set on the first line, you then do something with them and they then get set to the values in the second line? What do you want to do with them exactly? – Mark Setchell Jul 20 '15 at 22:12
  • need to pass them to another script as variables – ajay k Jul 20 '15 at 23:03

1 Answers1

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I. This is to have var1 to var4 available per line (assuming the text file is called Txt_file.txt):

@echo off
set /A line=0
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /F "tokens=1-3*" %%I in (Txt_file.txt) do (
set /A line+=1
set var1=%%I
set var2=%%J
set var3=%%K
set var4=%%L
rem at this point you have 'var1' to 'var4':
echo LINE !line!:
echo var1: !var1!
echo var2: !var2!
echo var3: !var3!
echo var4: !var4!
)
endlocal

At the rem line the variables are available. Expand them like !var1! rather than %var1% due to delayed expansion (see setlocal /? and endlocal /? for more information on that), because we are in the body of the for /F loop, means in between the parenthesis after do ().
The line counter line is just there for illustration purposes.

Outside of the for /F loop, the variables contain the content of the last line of the text file.
Beyond the setlocal/endlocal block, the variables are no longer available.

So the output will be:

LINE 1:
var1: OPS
var2: OPS
var3: lastmth
var4: Jun 2015
LINE 2:
var1: OPS
var2: OPS
var3: currmth
var4: Jul 2015

II. This is to have var1, var2 and so on throughout the entire text file (up to var8 in your example):

@echo off
set /A cnt=0
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
for /F "tokens=1-3*" %%I in (Txt_file.txt) do (
set /A cnt+=1 & set var!cnt!=%%I
set /A cnt+=1 & set var!cnt!=%%J
set /A cnt+=1 & set var!cnt!=%%K
set /A cnt+=1 & set var!cnt!=%%L
)
rem at this point you have !var1!, !var2!, etc.:
echo ALL CONTENT:
for /L %%I in (1,1,%cnt%) do (
echo var%%I: !var%%I!
)
endlocal & set cnt=%cnt%
echo TOTAL AMOUNT: %cnt%

Again at the rem line the variables are available. This time I expand them by a for /L loop because the text file length (number of lines) could differ; the number of entries and thus the amount variables is stored in %cnt% (so you can expand the last variable by !var%cnt%!, means var8 in our situation). You can of course expand the variables like !var1!, etc. instead of the for /L loop; this time also %var1%, etc. works because we are not in the body of the for /F loop. Delayed expansion is required though in order to build up the variables dynamically.

Besides %cnt%, the variables are no longer available beyond the setlocal/endlocal block.

The output will be:

ALL CONTENT:
var1: OPS
var2: OPS
var3: lastmth
var4: Jun 2015
var5: OPS
var6: OPS
var7: currmth
var8: Jul 2015
TOTAL AMOUNT: 8
aschipfl
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