How to set commands output as a variable in a batch file

Question

Is it possible to set a statement s output of a batch file to a variable  for example   findstr testing  gt   VARIABLE   echo  VARIABLE

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If you don t want to output to a temp file and then read into a variable  this code stores result of command direct into a variable   FOR  F  i IN   findstr testing   DO set VARIABLE  i echo  VARIABLE    If you want to enclose search string in double quotes   FOR  F  i IN   findstr  testing    DO set VARIABLE  i   If you want to store this code in a batch file  add an extra   symbol   FOR  F   i IN   findstr  testing    DO set VARIABLE   i   A useful example to count the number of files in a directory  amp  store in a variable   illustrates piping   FOR  F  i IN   dir  b  a-d   cd      find  v  c       DO set  a count  i   Note the use of single quotes instead of double quotes   or grave accent   in the command brackets  This is cleaner alternative to delims  tokens or usebackq in for loop   Tested on Win 10 CMD

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I found this thread on that there Interweb thing  Boils down to    echo off  setlocal enableextensions  for  f  tokens      a in     VER     do    set myvar   a     echo   myvar    myvar   pause  endlocal    You can also redirect the output of a command to a temporary file  and then put the contents of that temporary file into your variable  likesuchashereby  It doesn t work with multiline input though   cmd  gt  tmpFile  set  p myvar   lt  tmpFile  del tmpFile    Credit to the thread on Tom s Hardware

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To read a file     set  P Variable  lt File txt   To Write a file   echo  DataToWrite  gt File txt   note  having spaces before the  lt   character causes a space to be added at the end of the variable  also  To add to a file like a logger program  First make a file with a single enter key in it called e txt  set  P Data  lt log0 log set  P Ekey  lt e txt  echo  Data  Ekey  NewData  gt log0 txt   your log will look like this  Entry1 Entry2    and so on  Anyways a couple useful things

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Some notes and some tricks  The  official  way to assign result to a variable is with FOR  F though in the other answers is shown how a temporary file can be used also  For command processing FOR command has two forms depending if the usebackq option is used  In the all examples below the whole output is used without splitting it  FOR  f  quot tokens   delims  quot    A in   whoami   do  set  quot I-Am   A quot  FOR  f  quot usebackq tokens   delims  quot    A in   whoami   do  set  quot I-Am   A quot   and if used directly in the console  FOR  f  quot tokens   delims  quot   A in   whoami   do set  quot I-Am  A quot  FOR  f  quot usebackq tokens   delims  quot   A in   whoami   do set  quot I-Am  A quot     A is a temporary variable available only on the FOR command context and is called token The two forms can be useful in case when you are dealing with arguments containing specific quotes  It is especially useful with REPL interfaces of other languages or WMIC  Though in both cases the expression can be put in double quotes and it still be processed  Here s an example with python  it is possible to transition the expression in the brackets on a separate line which is used for easier reading    echo off  for  f  quot tokens   delims  quot    a in       quot python -c  quot  quot print  quot  quot  quot Message from python quot  quot  quot   quot  quot  quot     do       echo processed message from python   quot   a quot     To use an assigned variable in the same FOR block check also the DELAYED EXPANSION And some tricks To save yourself from writing all the arguments for the FOR command you can use MACRO for assigning the result to variable   echo off        ---- defining the assign macro ----          setlocal DisableDelayedExpansion  set LF     EMPTY     set   quot  n     LF  LF   LF  LF    quot     set argv Empty set assign for  L   n in  1 1 2  do     n     if   n  2    n        setlocal enableDelayedExpansion  n        for  F  quot tokens 1 2 delims   quot    A in   quot  argv  quot   do    n           for  f  quot tokens   delims  quot      in      A   do endlocal  amp set  quot    B     quot    n            n         n      amp  set argv          --------               EXAMPLE  assign   quot WHOAMI  LOGONID quot  result echo  result   the first argument to the macro is the command and the second the name of the variable we want to use and both are separated by    comma   Though this is suitable only for straight forward scenarios  If we want a similar macro for the console we can use DOSKEY doskey assign for  f  quot tokens 1 2 delims   quot   a in   quot    quot   do  for  f  quot tokens   delims  quot     in    quot  a quot    do  set  quot  b    quot  rem  -- example -- assign WHOAMI  LOGONID my-id echo  my-id   DOSKEY does accept double quotes as enclosion for arguments so this also is useful for more simple scenarios  FOR also works well with pipes which can be used for chaining commands  though it is not so good for assigning a variable  hostname  for  f  quot tokens   delims  quot      in   more   do   ping       Which also can be beautified with macros   echo off    --- defining chain command macros --- set  quot result-as- arg    for  f  quot tokens   delims  quot      in   more   do    quot  set  quot  arg        quot       --------------------------         Example  hostname  result-as- arg    ping   arg    And for completnes macros for the temp file approach  no doskey definition  but it also can be easy done If you have a SSD this wont be so slow    echo off                                                              set  quot     gt  quot   quot  2 gt  amp 1 amp set p  quot  amp set  quot      lt    amp  del  q    gt nul 2 gt  amp 1 quot                                                               chcp     code-page     echo    code-page     whoami     its-me     echo    its-me     For  f with another macro                                                       set  quot    for  f  quot tokens   delims  quot      in    quot   amp      set  quot --    do  set  quot  quot                          amp      set  quot         quot  quot                                 amp                                                           --examples    assigning ver output to  win-ver  variable      ver  -- win-ver     echo 3   win-ver      assigning hostname output to  my-host  variable      hostname  -- my-host     echo 4   my-host

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I most cases  creating a temporary file named after your variable name might be acceptable   as you are probably using meaningful variables name     Here  my variable name is SSH PAGEANT AUTH SOCK dir  w  quot     pipe   quot  find  quot pageant quot   gt   temp  SSH PAGEANT AUTH SOCK  amp  amp  set  P SSH PAGEANT AUTH SOCK  lt  temp  SSH PAGEANT AUTH SOCK

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FOR  F  tokens   USEBACKQ    F IN   command   DO   SET var   F   ECHO  var    I always use the USEBACKQ so that if you have a string to insert or a long file name  you can use your double quotes without screwing up the command   Now if your output will contain multiple lines  you can do this  SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION SET count 1 FOR  F  tokens   USEBACKQ    F IN   command   DO     SET var count    F   SET  a count  count  1   ECHO  var1  ECHO  var2  ECHO  var3  ENDLOCAL

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cd  windir  system32 inetsrv   echo off  for  F  tokens   USEBACKQ    x in                  appcmd list apppool  text name           do               echo set  p      x -    text name  amp  appcmd exe list apppool    x   text processModel identityType           echo  date   amp  echo  time   pause

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in a single line  FOR  F  quot tokens   quot    g IN    your command    do  SET VAR   g   the command output will be set in  g then in VAR  More informations  https   ss64 com nt for cmd html

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These answers were all so close to the answer that I needed   This is an attempt to expand on them   In a Batch file  If you re running from within a  bat file and you want a single line that allows you to export a complicated command like jq -r   Credentials AccessKeyId  c  temp mfa-getCreds json to a variable named AWS ACCESS KEY then you want this   FOR  F  tokens   USEBACKQ    g IN   jq -r   Credentials AccessKeyId  c  temp mfa-getCreds json   do  SET  AWS ACCESS KEY   g     On the Command Line  If you re at the C   prompt you want a single line that allows you to run a complicated command like jq -r   Credentials AccessKeyId  c  temp mfa-getCreds json to a variable named AWS ACCESS KEY then you want this   FOR  F  tokens   USEBACKQ   g IN   jq -r   Credentials AccessKeyId  c  temp mfa-getCreds json   do  SET  AWS ACCESS KEY  g     Explanation  The only difference between the two answers above is that on the command line  you use a single   in your variable   In a batch file  you have to double up on the percentage signs        Since the command includes colons  quotes  and parentheses  you need to include the USEBACKQ line in the options so that you can use backquotes to specify the command to run and then all kinds of funny characters inside of it

[windows] How to set commands output as a variable in a batch file

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