Removing double quotes from variables in batch file creates problems with CMD environment

Question

Can anybody help with effective and safe way of removing quotes from batch variables  I have written a batch file which successfully imports a list of parameters  1   2   3 etc  and places them into named variables   Some of these parameters contain multiple words  and therefor are enclosed in double quotes   gt   quot Susie Jo quot    1     gt   quot Smith Barnes quot    2     gt   quot 123 E  Main St  quot    3     These  variables are next placed in named variables   gt  set FirstName  1    gt  set LastName  2    gt  set ShipAddr  3    verification of variables is done by echo   gt  echo  FirstName   gt  echo  LastName   gt  echo  ShipAddr  results display as  quot Susie Jo quot     quot Smith Barnes quot     quot 123 E  Main St  quot     I need to eliminate the included quotes on selected variables   For instance  FirstName and LastName are used elsewhere and must not include quotes  In a test batch file I was successful at eliminating quotes using the  tilde character in variables   gt  set FirstName   1  gt  set LastName   2   I thought I had the solution  but I soon experienced unusual behavior with execution of batch files   Suddenly CMD is no recognizing long path statments   Normal execution of batch file from full path  gt  C  Documents and Settings Administrator My Documents Txt batchtest dataout bat  returns  gt   C  Documents  is not recognized as an internal or external command      So it would appear that the addition of the  tilde character to the in-coming  1  2    n variables has caused some change   Possibly some environment variables have been altered  I also tried clearing quotes from within variable with various attempts using the FOR command   That seems awkward and I have been unable to learn how to accomplish this by creating a list of variable to perform the task  something like this  for   g in   FirstName   LastName   do   set   g    g set   h    h set FirstName    g set LastName   h echo  FirstName   LastName     I think I have two issues   My  short and sweet  idea of inserting  tilde in the incoming  1  2 variables    1  etc  seems to have affected some settings and altered how CMD navigates long pathnames   I m still in search of a clean and easy way to eliminate quotes from selected named variables    Any help for those more experienced would be most appreciated   I m at the end of my skills here    need some guidance please  edit 12 26 2009 13 36 PST entire batch file     dataout bat      revision 12 25 2009 add  tilde to incoming  variables to eliminate embedded  quot quotation marks       writes address list using command line parameters      writes data output list for QBooks IIF import      writes Merchant Order data for RUI      sample command line string for testing      listmail firstname  lastname   quot address string quot    quot city string quot   state  zip  Order   PurchDate  Regname   quot FirstName LastName quot   TransactionID  PaymentMethod  Total  ProductID  Qty  Price Each  PackPrep   Shipping   CommissionPmt   Invoice        example  dataout Bellewinkle Moose  quot 123 Green Forest Way quot   quot Vancouver quot  WA 98664 1004968 05 25 2009  quot Bellewinkle Moose quot   quot Olive Oyl quot  101738  quot On Account quot  20 67 FK-1P 1 8 95 3 00 1 39 239    echo off   cls   c    cd    cd documents and settings administrator my documents txt batchtest   echo processing  1  2    VARISET      Convert  n command line parameters to string variables   set   FirstName    1   set   LastName    2   set   BillingAddress1    3   set   BillingCity    4   set   BillingState    5   set   BillingPostal    6   set   OrderNumber    7   set   Purch Date    8   set   RegistrationName    9   shift   set   TransactionID    9   shift   set   PaymentMethod    9   shift   set   Total    9   shift set   ProductIdentifier    9   shift   set   Quantity    9   shift   set   Price Each    9   shift   set   Pack Prep    9   shift   set   Shipping    9   shift   set   ServiceFee    9   shift   set   Discount    9   shift   set   Invoice    9   shift   set   UnitPrice    9   set  ShipCombName    FirstName      LastName     echo ship combo name is   ShipCombName    pause      write string varibables to logfile   echo FN    FirstName   LN    LastName   BA    BillingAddress1      BillingCity      BillingState      BillingPostal      OrderNumber      Purch Date      RegistrationName      TransactionID      PaymentMethod      Total      ProductIdentifier      Quantity      Price Each      Pack Prep      Shipping      ServiceFee      Discount      Invoice      UnitPrice     ShipCombName   gt  gt  d out log txt      Assign Account by Service Provider   IF  i    PaymentMethod    Amazon Receivables SET  QBAcct Amazon com      12-25-2009 added second Amazon pm t method for versatility   IF  i    PaymentMethod    Amazon SET  QBAcct Amazon com   IF  i    PaymentMethod    MAST SET  QBAcct Auth Net   IF  i    PaymentMethod    MasterCard SET  QBAcct Auth Net   IF  i    PaymentMethod    Visa SET  QBAcct Auth Net   IF  i    PaymentMethod    PayPal SET  QBAcct PayPalPmts   IF  i    PaymentMethod    On Account SET  QBAcct    RegistrationName     IF  i    PaymentMethod    Mail SET  QBAcct    RegistrationName     IF  i    PaymentMethod    AMER SET  QBAcct Auth Net   IF  i    PaymentMethod    DISC SET  QBAcct Auth Net      Assign Rep designator based on QBAccount   IF  i    PaymentMethod    Amazon Receivables SET  Rep Amazon      12-25-2009 added second Amazon pm t method for versatility   IF  i    PaymentMethod    Amazon SET  Rep Amazon   IF  i    PaymentMethod    MAST SET  Rep BlueZap   IF  i    PaymentMethod    MasterCard SET  Rep BlueZap   IF  i    PaymentMethod    Visa SET  Rep BlueZap   IF  i    PaymentMethod    PayPal SET  Rep BlueZap   IF  i    PaymentMethod    On Account SET  Rep R B   IF  i    PaymentMethod    Mail SET  Rep R B   IF  i    PaymentMethod    AMER SET  Rep BlueZap   IF  i    PaymentMethod    DISC SET  Rep BlueZap      check for duplicate address data   findstr  i  s  quot   ShipCombName  quot  addrlist txt   echo errorlevel   errorlevel    if errorlevel 1 goto  ADDRWRITE   if errorlevel 0 goto  ADDRFOUND    ADDRWRITE   echo   ShipCombName   gt  gt  addrlist txt   echo    BillingAddress1    gt  gt  addrlist txt   echo    BillingCity      BillingState      BillingPostal    gt  gt  addrlist txt   echo   gt  gt  addrlist txt   echo Address File Written    ADDRFOUND   echo selected rep is   Rep    echo selected account is    QBAcct    pause      RUI OUT      write Merchant Order ID  amp  RUI Order ID to RUI      check for duplicate RUI data in writeRUI txt   cd     cd RegKOut   find  i  quot    OrderNumber   quot  writeRUI txt   echo errorlevel   errorlevel    if errorlevel 1 goto  RUIWRITE   if errorlevel 0 goto  IIFWRITE    RUIWRITE   echo    Invoice        OrderNumber    gt  gt  writeRUI txt      end write RUI      IIF OUT    IIFWRITE      Check for duplicate invoice data in writeIIF txt   find  i  quot    OrderNumber   quot  writeIIF txt   echo errorlevel   errorlevel    if errorlevel 1 goto  HEADWRITE   if errorlevel 0 goto  LINEWRITE    HEADWRITE      write Header  Ship Handling  discount  Rep  amp  commission data to QB IIF import file   echo    OrderNumber        Purch Date   Invoice    TransactionID      QBAcct    Accounts Receivable                Total      Rep   gt  gt  writeIIF txt     echo                        H P    Pack Prep    1      gt  gt  writeIIF txt   echo                        SHP    Shipping     1      gt  gt  writeIIF txt   echo                        DISC       Discount     1      gt  gt  writeIIF txt   echo                        Comm       ServiceFee   1      gt  gt  writeIIF txt    LINEWRITE   IF  i    ProductIdentifier   equ PH-1 goto WRITE DEFA ELSE goto WRITE DISC   echo    ProductIdentifier      WRITE DISC     writes discounted prices parsed from custom variable    echo                           ProductIdentifier       Price Each      Quantity        gt  gt  writeIIF txt   goto  EOF    WRITE DEFA    writes default prices parsed from Product data   echo                           ProductIdentifier       UnitPrice       Quantity        gt  gt  writeIIF txt   goto  EOF      3-second delay      TYPE NUL   CHOICE COM  N  CY  TY 3  gt NUL    EOF

User · Answer

I usually just remove all quotes from my variables with    set var  var       And then apply them again wherever I need them e g    echo   var

User · Answer

I learned from this link  if you are using XP or greater that this will simply work by itself   SET params     1  I could not get any of the other solutions here to work on Windows 7    To iterate over them  I did this   FOR   A IN   params   DO          ECHO   A         Note  You will only get double quotes if you pass in arguments separated by a space typically

User · Answer

All the answers are complete  But Wanted to add one thing   set FirstName   1 set LastName   2  This line should have worked  you needed a small change   set  quot FirstName   1 quot  set  quot LastName   2 quot   Include the complete assignment within quotes  It will remove quotes without an issue  This is a prefered way of assignment which fixes unwanted issues with quotes in arguments

User · Answer

Your conclusion  1  sounds wrong  There must be some other factor at play   The problem of quotes in batch file parameters is normally solved by removing the quotes with    and then putting them back manually where appropriate   E g    set cmd   1 set params   2   3    cmd    params    Note the quotes around  cmd   Without them  path with spaces won t work   If you could post your entire batch code  maybe more specific answer could be made

User · Answer

Spent a lot of time trying to do this in a simple way  After looking at FOR loop carefully  I realized I can do this with just one line of code   FOR  F  delims     I IN   Quoted   DO SET Unquoted   I   Example    ECHO OFF SET Quoted  Test string   FOR  F  delims     I IN   Quoted   DO SET Unquoted   I  ECHO  Quoted  ECHO  Unquoted    Output    Test string  Test string

User · Answer

I thought I had the solution  but I soon experienced unusual behavior with execution of batch files  Suddenly CMD is no recognizing long path statments  Normal execution of batch file from full path  C  Documents and Settings Administrator My Documents Txt batchtest dataout bat  returns   C  Documents  is not recognized as an internal or external command       There s your whole problem  CMD doesn t understand spaces inside of filenames from the command line  so it thinks you re trying to pass  and Settings Administrator My Documents Txt batchtest dataout bat  as parameters to the   quot C  Documents quot   program  You need to quote it to run a batch file with spaces in the path   gt   quot C  Documents and Settings Administrator My Documents Txt batchtest dataout bat quot   would have worked

User · Answer

echo off  Setlocal enabledelayedexpansion  Set 1  1  Set 1  1      Echo  1   Echo   1    Set 1    Demonstrates with or without quotes reguardless of whether original parameter has quotes or not   And if you want to test the existence of a parameter which may or may not be in quotes  put this line before the echos above   If   1      goto yoursub  But if checking for existence of a file that may or may not have quotes then it s   If EXIST   1   goto othersub  Note the use of single quotes and double quotes are different

User · Answer

The simple tilde syntax works only for removing quotation marks around the command line parameters being passed into the batch files  SET xyz   1   Above batch file code will set xyz to whatever value is being passed as first paramter stripping away the leading and trailing quotations  if present     But  This simple tilde syntax will not work for other variables that were not passed in as parameters  For all other variable  you need to use expanded substitution syntax that requires you to  specify leading and lagging characters to be removed  Effectively we are instructing to remove strip away the first and the last character without looking at what it actually is    SET SomeFileName  Some Quoted file name   echo  SomeFileName   SomeFileName  1 -1    If we wanted to check what the first and last character was actually quotation before removing it  we will need some extra code as follows   SET VAR  Some Very Long Quoted String  If aa VAR  0 1  VAR  -1 aa    aa  aa SET UNQUOTEDVAR  VAR  1 -1

User · Answer

This sounds like a simple bug where you are using    somewhere where you shouldn t be   The use if    doesn t fundamentally change the way batch files work  it just removes quotes from the string in that single situation

User · Answer

set widget  a very useful item   set widget  widget  a very useful item   set widget  widget       set widget  set widget a very useful item     The trailing quote   in line 4 is adding a quote   to the string  It should be removed  The syntax for line 4 ends with

User · Answer

You have an extra double quote at the end  which is adding it back to the end of the string  after removing both quotes from the string    Input   set widget  a very useful item  set widget set widget  widget     set widget   Output   widget  a very useful item  widget a very useful item   Note  To replace Double Quotes   with Single Quotes   do the following   set widget  widget        Note  To replace the word  World   not case sensitive  with BobB do the following   set widget  Hello World   set widget  widget world BobB  set widget   Output   widget  Hello BobB     As far as your initial question goes  save the following code to a batch file  cmd or  bat and run     ECHO OFF ECHO  0 SET BathFileAndPath   0 ECHO  BathFileAndPath  ECHO   BathFileAndPath   ECHO   0 ECHO  0 PAUSE   Output    C  Users Test Documents Batch Files Remove Quotes cmd  C  Users Test Documents Batch Files Remove Quotes cmd  C  Users Test Documents Batch Files Remove Quotes cmd  C  Users Test Documents Batch Files Remove Quotes cmd  C  Users Test Documents Batch Files Remove Quotes cmd  Press any key to continue          0 is the Script Name and Path   1 is the first command line argument  and so on

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