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I'm writing a batch script to convert a fixed-width text file to .csv format. Here's what I've written so far:

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion


    for /F "tokens=*" %%A in (HRV*.txt) do (
    set var=%%A
    set mer=!var:~6,11!
    set cr=!var:~18,19!

    set dt=!var:~42,30!
    set aa=!var:~72,30!
    set ab=!var:~102,30!
    set ac=!var:~132,15!

    set ad=!var:~147,30!
    set ae=!var:~177,30!

    set af=!var:~283,36!

    set ag=!var:~318,3!
    set ah=!var:~329,7!
    set ai=!var:~337,17!
    set aj=!var:~442,2!
    set ak=!var:~460,15!
    set al=!var:~475,2!
    set am=!var:~482,15!

    set y=!mer!.!cr!,"!dt!","!aa!","!ab!","!ac!","!ad!","!ae!",="!af!","!ag!",="ah","ai","aj",="ak","al",="am"
    echo !y!>> converted.csv
    )

pause

The problem is that when I run it, the program fails to complete, and outputs "The system cannot find the file HRV*.txt". I then changed for loop to

for /F "tokens=*" %%A in (*.txt) do ( ...

But the error just changed to "The system cannot find the file *.txt"

It seems that the star * is being read as text? does this have something to do with "tokens+*"? How can I make it so that the script will run on any file that starts with HRV?

blackpen
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bweber13
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1 Answers1

4

for /f expects a single file name and is not capable of using wildcards. Use another plain for around: 

for %%X in (HRV*.txt) do (
  for /F "tokens=*" %%A in (%%X) do (
    ... etc. etc.
  )
)

by the way: your way of redirecting is very slow. The destination file is opened, one line is written and the file is closed again. Opening and closing a file is very time consuming. You can avoid it by opening and closing it just one time. Instead of:

for /l %%a in (1,1,10000) do (
  echo something>>file.txt
)

which needs about 27 seconds, do: 

(
  for /l %%a in (1,1,10000) do (
    echo something
  )
)>file.txt

which needs about 170 ms. (Ymmv - times depends on your computer system)

Stephan
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