Conditionally process the output of a command, items in text file(s), or a text string.
FOR /F processing of a command/text-file consists of reading the output from the command/text-file one line at a time and then breaking the line up into individual items of data or 'tokens'. The DO command is then executed with the parameter(s) set to the token(s) found.
By default, /F breaks up the command/line output at each blank space, and any blank lines are skipped. You can override this default parsing behavior by specifying the "options" parameter. The options must be contained within "quotes".
FOR /F /?
To use FOR in a batch program:
FOR /F ["[delims=xxx] [skip=n] [eol=;] [tokens=n] [usebackq]"] %%variable IN ('command_to_process' | filename | "Text string to process") DO command [command-parameters]
To use FOR from the command prompt:
FOR /F ["[delims=xxx] [skip=n] [eol=;] [tokens=n] [usebackq]"] %variable IN ('command_to_process' | filename | "Text string to process") DO command [command-parameters]
FOR - Loop through a set of files in one folder.
FOR /R - Loop through files (recurse subfolders).
FOR /D - Loop through several folders.
FOR /L - Loop through a range of numbers.
FORFILES - Batch process multiple files.
GOTO - Direct a batch program to jump to a labelled line.
IF - Conditionally perform a command.
Equivalent Linux BASH commands:
cut - Divide a file into several columns.
for - Expand words, and execute commands.
case - Conditionally perform a command.
eval - Evaluate several COMMANDS/arguments.
if - Conditionally perform a command.
gawk - Find and Replace text within file(s).
m4 - Macro processor.
until - Execute commands (until error).
while - Execute commands.
none.
To ECHO from the command-line, the name of every environment variable.
FOR /F "delims==" %G IN ('SET') DO @ ECHO %G
To ECHO from the command-line, the name of every environment variable, using usebackq.
FOR /F "usebackq delims==" %G IN (`SET`) DO @ ECHO %G
To put the Windows Version into an environment variable:
@ECHO OFF
::parse the VER command
FOR /F "tokens=4*" %%G IN ('ver') DO SET v_version=%%G
:: show the result
ECHO %v_version%
List all the text files in a folder:
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%G IN ('dir/b ^"c:\program files\*.txt^"') DO ECHO %%G
(The long filename surrounded by "quotes" have to be escaped using ^).
Echo the dollar amount and the date:
FOR /F "tokens=1,3* delims=," %%G IN ("12-AUG-99,deposit,$45.50,23.7") DO @ ECHO %%H was paid to %%G
Echo the month and transaction type:
FOR /F "tokens=2,4* delims=," %%G IN ("12-AUG-99,deposit,$45.50,23.7") DO @ ECHO %%H was made in %%G
Parse each line in myfile.txt, ignoring lines that begin with a semicolon, with tokens delimited by a comma:
FOR /F "tokens=1,3* delims=," %%G IN (myfile.txt) DO @ ECHO %%G %%H %%I
myfile.txt
[
12-AUG-99,DEPOSIT,450,23,55
; start of the new year
14-JAN-00,WITHDRAWAL,285,122
03-FEB-00,DEPOSIT,200
]
%%G = token1 = "12-AUG-99"
%%H = token3 = "450"
%%I = tokens 4+ = "23,55"
%%G is explicitly declared in the FOR statement and the %%H and %%I are implicitly declared via the tokens= option. You can specify up to 26 tokens via the tokens= line, provided this does not cause an attempt to declare a parameter higher than the letter 'Z'.
FOR parameter names are global, so in complex scripts which call one FOR statement from within another FOR statement you can refer to both sets of parameters. You cannot have more than 26 parameters active at any one time.
none.