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Create a set of folders with cmd - Set a loop variable with a space

I don't know if its age or lack of practice. Either way I cannot wrap my head around this issue. I am trying to set a subroutine but the string that I am passing along are being split because of the space in string 3 and 4.

SET SubA=String1,String2,String 3,String 4
FOR %%A IN (%SubA%) DO MD "%%A"

I've tried parenthesis around the string The <> brackets like Microsoft says to use. I have also tried this line below without success.

setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
For /F "tokens=* delims=" %%A  IN (%Var%) DO  MD "%%A"

Also I would love if possible could I make an list, possibly with an array. Like in Power shell I could do this. I really need to keep in the same batch file so the user could edit the list. I am aware that I could use caret but the easier I can make it for my client the better.

$Folders (
String1
String2
String 3
String 4
)

Edit: My desired result is to have this script create a set of folders like those pictured. Desired Results

Solution

  • The simplest pure batch-file solution that doesn't require trickery is to use for's ability to enumerate space-separated tokens.

    For this to work as intended, tokens that themselves contain spaces must be double-quoted:

    @echo off & setlocal

:: Space-separated list of folder names, with names that contains
:: spaces themselves double-quoted.
SET SubA=String1 String2 "String 3" "String 4"

:: Loop over the list elements and create a directory for each.
FOR %%A IN (%SubA%) DO MD %%A

    As Compo's helpful answer implies, you could actually pass this list to a single invocation of
    MD: MD %SubA%

    Unfortunately, as far as I know, batch files do not offer a convenient way to define lists in a one-item-per-line format.

    However, you could provide the list of names via an external file, with each name on its own line (no double-quoting needed), which can then be parsed with for /f; e.g.:

    @echo off & setlocal

:: Determine the full path of the file "names.txt" 
:: located in the same folder as this batch file.
set "nameList=%~dp0names.txt"

:: Loop over all names in the file and call `md` with each.
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%n in ("%nameList%") do md "%%n"

    And input file names.txt would then contain something like:

    String1
String2
String 3
String 4