How to echo an 0x96 character in a batch file?

Question

I've got a TFS project with a 0x96 character in its title, e.g. "Project – X" which I need to reference in a batch file. The problem is that this particular dash is represented by 0x96 (and not 0x20) which is a control character in Unicode (û in ASCII?), so the following (in an ANSI encoded .cmd file) fails as "Project û X".

echo "Project – X"

But when pasted straight to the command line (I think) it cheats and translates the 0x96 to a 0x20 (which is no good as my file names don't match). I tried this with a hex editor and it looks like there's some cheating going on.

The .cmd file won't work if it's encoded as anything but ANSI.

score 4 · Answer 1 · edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

4

By default, cmd.exe uses the old "OEM" codepages whereas pre-Unicode Windows applications use the "ANSI" codepages (Code Pages Supported by Windows).

You will (as jeb alludes) either have to save your text file in the OEM encoding (assuming that character is even in it) or switch your console to the ANSI encoding.

edited May 23 '17 at 11:48

Community

1
1

answered Jan 04 '11 at 22:08

McDowell

107,573
31
204
267

thanks for the info on changing code pages, am reading up on it now – timB33 Jan 05 '11 at 08:49

score 2 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 04 '11 at 15:48

Something like this works

@echo off
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
chcp 1252
set "name=Projekt û X.txt"
chcp 850
type "!name!"

The important thing is the chcp 1252, the chcp 850 is only to switch back to my default code page, but it is not neccessary.

How to echo an 0x96 character in a batch file?

2 Answers2