How to concatenate command line args for a batch file?

Question

I'm currently attempting to concatenate my command line arguments with this:

for %%a in (%*) do set "subject=%subject% %%a"

So for example if I run

my.bat subject line here

it should set my subject variable to "subject line here", preserving the spaces. However, currently after the run, my subject variable is set to the last word. I get a subject value of " here."

How to concatenate the command line arguments right?

In case of you want to know why environment variable subject does not have the expected string after the FOR loop, open a command prompt window, run set /? and read all output help pages. There is a for example very similar to yours on which is explained why delayed expansion must be used to concatenate the strings correct. — Mofi
– Mofi, Commented Aug 20, 2016 at 11:31

Community · Accepted Answer · 2017-05-23 10:28:47Z

7

Can't you just do:

SET subject=%*

Alternatively enable delayed expansion so that the environment variables don't get substituted during parsing.

Setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for %%a in (%*) do set subject=!subject! %%a
echo %subject%

see Difference between %variable% and !variable! in batch file for more info.

edited May 23, 2017 at 10:28

CommunityBot

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answered Aug 20, 2016 at 1:56

FloatingKiwi

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1 Comment

FloatingKiwi Over a year ago

No Problem, if this solved your issue then please tick the solution as accepted.

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