For /f Quotes - Run a program with a long file name.

[darwin4ever]

Hi,

I have a program which accepts a string (may have spaces when surrounded by double quotes) as parameter and returns a string (may have spaces)

Like this :
"My Program Name.exe" "this is a string"
and the output might be "string a is this"
and that works

But if I want to capture the return-string in a variable with a
for /f %%i in ('"My Program Name.exe" "this is a string"') do set OutputString=%%i
I can't get it working

Tried several things :
for /f %%i in ('"My Program Name.exe"') do set OutputString=%%i --> program executes but does nothing as no given parameter

for /f %%i in ('"My Program Name.exe" "this is a string"') do set OutputString=%%i --> "My" is not recognized as an internal or external command

set aaa="this is a string"
for /f %%i in ('"My Program Name.exe" %%aaa%%') do set OutputString=%%i --> program executes but only |this| is passed to the program, meaning surrounding quotes are missing

set aaa=this is a string
for /f %%i in ('"My Program Name.exe" "%%aaa%%"') do set OutputString=%%i --> "My" is not recognized as an internal or external command

a.s.o.

What am I overlooking ?

[Simon Sheppard]

Try like this

Code: Select all

for /f %%i in ('""My Program Name.exe" "this is a string""') do set OutputString=%%i

I think this is needed because the FOR command starts a new sub-shell which removes the outer set of double quotes.

[darwin4ever]

No good, the parameter-surrounding quotes aren't passed to the program : --> program executes but only |this| is passed to the program, meaning surrounding quotes are missing

[Simon Sheppard]

The default delimiters of the FOR command are a Space, TAB, comma, Equals or Semicolon.

So you will need to add "delims=" to remove those defaults and then %%i will contain everything.

[darwin4ever]

So you will need to add "delims=" to remove those defaults and then %%i will contain everything.

Thanks !!!

The combination of your earlier double-quote-suggestion and the "delims=" solved everything.
Great

[Simon Sheppard]

Glad to be of help

[Edited the thread title to be more searchable]

Also a handy utility for testing this kind of thing is EchoArgs.exe it's part of the PowerShell Community Extensions but also works under the CMD shell.