Set variable to result of "Find" in batch-file

Question

I would like to set a variable based on the number of lines in a file that contain a give string.

Something like:

set isComplete = 0
%isComplete% = find /c /i "Transfer Complete" "C:\ftp.LOG"
IF %isComplete% > 0 ECHO "Success" ELSE ECHO "Failure"

Or:

set isComplete = 0
find /c /i "Transfer Complete" "C:\ftp.LOG" | %isComplete%
IF %isComplete% > 0 ECHO "Success" ELSE ECHO "Failure"

Neither of those options work, obviously.

Thanks.

Preet Sangha · Accepted Answer · 2009-05-06 19:03:31Z

15

from the command line

for /f "tokens=3" %f in ('find /c /i "Transfer Complete" "C:\ftp.LOG"') do set isComplete=%f

from the batch script

for /f "tokens=3" %%f in ('find /c /i "Transfer Complete" "C:\ftp.LOG"') do set isComplete=%%f

answered May 6, 2009 at 19:03

Preet Sangha

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2 Comments

MattH Over a year ago

This is great. However, I should have mentioned I need this to work with a path that has a space. The quotes don't seem to help. Ugh. So... for /f "tokens=3" %%f in ('find /c /i "Transfer Complete" "C:\test path\ftp.LOG"') do set isComplete=%%f sets isComplete to "PATH\FTP.LOG:", where the error, I guess, is caused by the space.

Patrick Cuff Over a year ago

You need to use the "usebackq" option of the for command so that you can put quotes around the path: for /f "usebackq tokens=3" %%f in (find /c /i "Transfer Complete" "C:\test path\ftp.log") do set isComplete %%f

Patrick Cuff · Accepted Answer · 2009-05-07 00:39:28Z

14

You don't need to use the for command; find will set the ERRORLEVEL to one of these values, based on the result:

0, At least one match was found.
1, no matches were found.
2 or more, an error occurred.

Since it looks like you just want to see if the transfer completed, and not the total count of times the string appears, you can do something like this:

@echo OFF

@find /c /i "Transfer Complete" "C:\test path\ftp.LOG" > NUL
if %ERRORLEVEL% EQU 0 (
    @echo Success
) else (
    @echo Failure
)

answered May 7, 2009 at 0:39

Patrick Cuff

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2 Comments

MattH Over a year ago

Actually I'm now expecting a count of 2 (two files transferred) . . . so two occurrences of "Transfer Complete" = Success.

Patrick Cuff Over a year ago

The IF %isComplete% > 0 is a little confusing then; is what you really want IF %isComplete% EQU 2?

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