Cmd commands with spaces from VBscript

Question

I'm trying to execute a SAS code with VBScript through the command line. However, I'm having issues with passing the commands from VBScript to command line properly. I'm pretty sure it is a matter of using quotes and chr(34) correctly, but I cannot figure it out.

So I want to run the follow command in command line:

"C:\Program Files\SAS 9.4\sas.exe" -SYSIN "C:\Program Files\test.sas"

I've tried something like

Set oShell = WScript.CreateObject ("WScript.Shell")
oShell.run "cmd.exe /K copy ""C:\Program Files\SAS 9.4\sas.exe"" -SYSIN ""C:\Program Files\test.sas"" ", 1, True
Set oShell = Nothing

But I get an invalid syntax error in command line. Any good ideas?

Ben Scott · Accepted Answer · 2017-12-13 17:22:14Z

1

CMD /K expects a single argument. If the argument contains spaces, the argument must be quoted. So the full command would be something like:

oShell.run "cmd.exe /K "" ""C:\Program Files\SAS 9.4\sas.exe"" -SYSIN ""C:\Program Files\test.sas"" "" ", 1, True

Normally, one would have to worry about nested quoting/escapes, but the /C and /K switches are special in how quotes work (CMD /? explains the details). If it looks like a single quoted argument, any quotes inside are automatically ignored by CMD.

edited Dec 13, 2017 at 17:22

answered Dec 12, 2017 at 16:11

Ben Scott

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3 Comments

user112110 Over a year ago

Oh yeah I got confused from trying to google. So the command I want to execute is just oShell.run "cmd.exe /K "" ^""C:\Program Files\SAS 9.4\sas.exe^"" -SYSIN ^""C:\Program Files\test.sas^"" "" ", 1, True As this should run the test.sas file in command line. However, the above doesn't work. I get an error with ` '"C:\Program' ` which I think indicates the quoting isn't workin :-/

Ben Scott Over a year ago

Ah, my apologies, I got it wrong myself. CMD /K has special behavior regarding quotes, that isn't seen anywhere else in CMD, and which I forgot about. I have corrected the original answer.

user112110 Over a year ago

Works like a charm. Thank you so much - now my work will be much simpler ;-)

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