asked on

MS-DOS locate string in multi line text file then set to a variable

I would like to use MS-DOS FIND command (or some other method) in a batch to locate a string from TEXTFILE.TXT and store it to a variable. My text file has multiple lines, and the string I search for is always the same "StoreId=" However, it can be on different lines within the text file. Always in the top 10 lines. I am after the value of what StoreId equals for the contents of the variable.

Example line from text file: StoreId=st0028
DOS batch variable contents desired: 0028

SteveGTR

Could try this. I need to test it, but it should work:

@echo off

setlocal

set storeId=

for /f "tokens=1,* delims==" %%a in ('type "%~1" 2^>NUL ^| findstr /i /c:"Storeid="') do if /i "%%a"=="Storeid" set storeId=%%b

echo storeId=%storeId%

Good Luck,
Steve

SteveGTR

It works. The processing takes the file name as a parameter to the batch file. So if you named the batch file FindStore.bat you'd say:

FindStore TEXTFILE.TXT

You could further optimize the processing like so:

@echo off

setlocal

set storeId=

for /f "tokens=1,* delims==" %%a in ('type "%~1" 2^>NUL ^| findstr /i /c:"Storeid="') do if /i "%%a"=="Storeid" set storeId=%%b&goto FOUNDIT

echo Didn't find store ID
goto :EIF

:FOUNDIT

echo storeId=%storeId%

Or you could simplify the processing since you've stated that the store ID occurs in the 1st 10 lines:

@echo off

setlocal

set storeId=

for /f "tokens=1,* delims==" %%a in ('type "%~1" 2^>NUL') do if /i "%%a"=="Storeid" set storeId=%%b&goto FOUNDIT

echo Didn't find store ID
goto :EIF

:FOUNDIT

echo storeId=%storeId%

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

SteveGTR

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See answer

ToddRod_Taylor

ASKER

b&goto FOUNDIT = goto FOUNDIT ?

ToddRod_Taylor

ASKER

or should b&goto FOUNDIT be on the same line as the for statement?