Using batch to read a certain section of a file and create a variable

Question

I've read a lot of things and I can't find away of doing this that I understand. This might be because I'm a wee newbie though.

What I'm trying to do is:

I have a file called start.txt with the contents

..\dll | toapp.exe "..\posdata\filename.xml" "..\OUT" "..\TEMP"

I want to read the contents of that in a batchfile and take only filename.xml as a variable. From device to device inside the network it changes.

I'm then going to use that variable to copy a file from 1 machine to another but I only want that one file and I can't be sure what it's called without looking in the start.txt. I can do all the copy and checks to make sure it's looking in the correct places but just not the findstr section.

Any idea of what to do to understand would be fantastic

is the file single line?

npocmaka
– npocmaka

2014-09-09 12:47:46 +00:00
Commented Sep 9, 2014 at 12:47 — npocmaka
– npocmaka, Commented Sep 9, 2014 at 12:47

npocmaka · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-10 12:21:42Z

1

@echo off
set "start_file=start.txt"
for /f tokens^=5^ delims^=\^" %%# in ('type "%start_file%"^|find /i "..\posdata"') do set "xml_file=%%#"

echo %xml_file%

Your question is a little bit unclear.Is this the only line in the file? Is this the exact content? How can I recognize the line with the file?

The script above will work in case there's only one line wwith "..\postdata" string and the content is exact as described in question.

Edit Covering the both cases:

@echo off
setlocal 
set "start_file=start.txt"
set "xml_file="
for /f tokens^=5^ delims^=\^" %%# in ('type "%start_file%"^|find /i "..\posdata"^|find /i /v "-storedbpath"') do set "xml_file=%%#"
if not defined xml_file (

    for /f "usebackq tokens=9" %%# in ("%start_file%") do (
        set "xml_file=%%~#"
    )
)
echo %xml_file%

edited Sep 10, 2014 at 12:21

answered Sep 9, 2014 at 12:55

npocmaka

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6 Comments

Sept Over a year ago

Sorry, wasn't sure what would be needed. That is the only line in the file at all and it's exactly like that. I'll have a wee play now. Thank you in advance

Sept Over a year ago

Okay, that worked like an absolute charm until I just came across 1 file out of 20 that also holds the following line ..\bin\JavaBin | javaw -jar np6-app.jar -storedbpath=..\..\posdata\ -localfile="_8001_pos-db.xml" which causes a double output of xml_file=filename.xml followed by xml_file=posdata

npocmaka Over a year ago

Will be able to chrck it after 2hours @Sept .now Im writing from my phone.

npocmaka Over a year ago

@Sept - the line that causes problems looks pretty different from this one in the question. I can differ the both cases with IF , but if there are more different cases it again will cause troubles. I will edit my answer , but be prepared.Hope you have only these two cases.

Sept Over a year ago

Perfect. Worked like a charm.

|

foxidrive · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-09 14:38:41Z

0

Text this:

for /f "usebackq tokens=4" %%a in ("start.txt") do echo %%~nxa

answered Sep 9, 2014 at 14:38

foxidrive

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