asked on

Batch File: Remove spaces in variable

Hi there,

I am looking for a way to remove the spaces in a variable with less code as below.

For example, insted of : SET A=%%A && SET A=!A: =!
It would be something like : SET A=!%%A: =!

Thanks for your help,
Rene

WORKING SCRIPT:
***************************************************************
@ECHO OFF

setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set String=This ,is , a ,big sentence.

for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=," %%A in ('echo !String!') do (
echo BEFORE: %%A %%B %%C %%D
SET A=%%A && SET A=!A: =!
SET B=%%B && SET B=!B: =!
SET C=%%C && SET C=!C: =!
SET D=%%D
)
echo AFTER: !A! !B! !C! !D!
pause

WANT TO DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS (BUT OF CORSE, IT DOES NOT WORK)
***************************************************************
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set String=This ,is , a ,big sentence.

for /f "tokens=1-4 delims=," %%A in ('echo !String!') do (
echo BEFORE: %%A %%B %%C %%D
SET A=!%%A: =!
SET B=!%%B: =!
SET C=!%%C: =!
SET D=%%D
)
echo AFTER: !A! !B! !C! !D!
pause

Bill Prew

Do you really just want leading and trailing spaces removed, or do you want what you seem to have now, which is ALL spaces removed. In your example, "big sentence." will become "bigsentence." That doesn't feel like what you would want, but want to check.

~bp

ReneGe

ASKER

Hi billprew,

You presumed right.

The result should be: This is a big sentence.

Thanks,
Rene

Bill Prew

Well, not sure exactly what you are trying to do, but this is about the simplest approach:

for /f "tokens=1-5 delims=, " %%A in ('echo !String!') do (
echo AFTER : %%A %%B %%C %%D %%E
)

If you really need the variables assigned separately, then this would work.

for /f "tokens=1-5 delims=, " %%A in ('echo !String!') do (
echo BEFORE: %%A %%B %%C %%D %%E
SET A=%%A
SET B=%%B
SET C=%%C
SET D=%%D
SET E=%%E
)
echo AFTER : %A% %B% %C% %D% %E%

~bp

ReneGe

ASKER

But that still does not remove the spaces from A, B, C and D.

Is: SET A=%%A && SET A=!A: =! the only way to go.

Or there might be a nicer way to do it, something like: SET A=!%%A: =!

Thanks,
Rene

ReneGe

ASKER

And by the way, all variables must absolutly be trimmed separatly.

Thanks,
Rene

Bill Prew

==> But that still does not remove the spaces from A, B, C and D.

Actually it does, notice I added a space to the delims= parm of the FOR. So the For command actually does the trimming. If you run my code you will see it yields the desired results. But that is just based on the example code you posed If I better understood what you need to accomplish I might be able to get closer to what you want.

Are you concerned about the execution speed of the code, and therefore trying to remove lines? Or just the way it looks and reads?

~bp

ReneGe

ASKER

Well you got me by surprise.
Your script works indeed and does exactly what I need to do, with minimum scripting.

Just by curiaucity, do you think there is a way to do this with my suggested approach?

With something like: SET A=!%%A: =!

Thanks,
Rene

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Bill Prew

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ReneGe

ASKER

Nice!!

This was very educative.

Have yourself a good one.

Thanks,
Rene

Bill Prew

Welcome, thank you.

~bp