How to recuperate a particular string from a file in batch

Question

I'm trying to recuperate a particular data from a file (we will call it MyFile.dart) using a batch file.

To be more precise I'm trying to recuperate the 2.4 from this line :

static var version = 2.4;

First, I use a for loop to iterate through each line of my file :

FOR /F "tokens=*" %%i IN (MyFile.dart)

Then I want to check if the line contains a particulare string (here "var version")

set str = %%i
    if not %str:"var version"=% == %str% DO

I got this from this topic but here I get the error :

=str is unexpected

Since the check doesn't work, I comment it and I try my next for loop on each line of MyFile.dart (if the check worked it would have been only on the line containing "var version") :

set str = %%i
FOR /F "tokens=2 delims==" %%a IN (%str%) DO (
    @echo %%a
)

Here I'm supposed to split the line using "=" as a separator and display the second element of the split array, but I get nothing printed in the console, and when I comment @echo off, I see that %str% is null. I tried using directly %%i but I also get an error.

So I hardcoded the line I'm interested in the loop :

set str = %%i
    FOR /F "tokens=2 delims==" %%a IN ("static var version = 2.4;") DO (
        @echo %%a
    )

And got the expected result of 2.4; in the console (but obviously it's not how I want to get it).

So to summarize :

• First problem : the "if not" to check if the line contains a particular substring doesn't work.

• Second problem : I can't pass the variable from the first loop (a line of the file) to the second loop to then parse it.

Here is my whole code :

FOR /F "tokens=*" %%i IN (MyFile.dart) DO (
 set str = %%i
 if not %str:"var version"=% == %str% DO (
    FOR /F "tokens=2 delims==" %%a IN (%str%) DO (
      @echo %%a
    )
  )
)

NB : If you have a totally different algorithm to get to the same result I will take it !

Answer 1

 set str = %%i

This sets the variable "strSpace" to the value "Space(the value of %%i)"

Use the syntax

set "str=%%i"

Including the quotes. Use set "var1=value" for setting STRING values - this avoids problems caused by trailing spaces. Quotes are not needed for setting arithmetic values (set /a`)

if not %str:"var version"=% == %str% DO (

The correct syntax is

if not "%str:var version=%" == "%str%" (

or, better

if "%str:var version=%" neq "%str%" (

The comparison is literal - both sides of the comparison operator must be quoted since the value may contain separators like spaces.

The correct syntax for string substitution is %varname:string=substitutestring%

Why set str again?

To parse a string using = as a delimiter, use

    FOR /F "tokens=2 delims==" %%a IN ("string") DO (

Note however that %str% will be the value str had at the time the outer loop (%%i) was encountered. For an explanation of how this works, see Stephan's DELAYEDEXPANSION link

You should consider using

FOR /F "tokens=2 delims==" %%a IN ("%%i") DO (

---

This worked for me - I changed the name of the file

@ECHO Off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION 
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%i IN (q71930885.txt) DO (
 set "str=%%i"
 if "!str:var version=!" neq "!str!" (
  FOR /F "tokens=2 delims==" %%a IN ("%%i") DO ( @echo %%a ) 
  ) 
)
GOTO :EOF

Response:

Space2.4;