How to count a special character in a string with window batch?

Have a string like str=C:\a\b\c\dd\t.txt
Don't know how deep the directory is. How to count how many slashes?
I have no problem to count any char, but the \ is a bit different. Please any guru shed some light on it?

@echo off setlocal enabledelayedexpansion set str=C:\a\b\c\dd\t.txt call :GetCharCount BackslashCount "%str%" "\" echo Backslashes found: %BackslashCount% REM ***** Only functions below this line ***** goto :eof :GetCharCount <Variable> <string> <Char> setlocal set String=%~2 set /a i = 0 set /a CharCount = 0 :GetCharCountLoop set Char=!String:~%i%,1! if not "%Char%"=="" ( if /i "%Char%"=="%~3" (set /a CharCount += 1) set /a i+= 1 goto GetCharCountLoop ) endlocal&set %~1=%CharCount% goto :eof

No points for me on this one, but I sometimes use a FOR /L for this one oBdA to avoid GOTO. I really don't like those because they have to read each line of the script from the top to find the label. I tend to use EXIT /B rather than GOTO :EOF for that reason, although I have no sure way of knowing if GOTO is smart enough to handle :EOF special and fast.

I know we think of things a little differently from time to time, I enjoy that about reading your posts. I decided to give up the SETLOCAL in the sub (even though I like that!) and instead directly access the result variable in the loop adding to it real time. As a result I had to clear out the one variable needed by the sub on exit. Anyway, just wanted to share a slightly different approach, but you already provided a viable approach, this was more for tinkering for me.

:GetCharCount <Variable> <string> <Char>
  set _S=%~2
  set /a %~1 = 0
  for /L %%i in (0,1,10000) do (
    if "!_S:~%%i,1!"=="" (set "_S=" & exit /b)
    if /i "!_S:~%%i,1!"=="%~3" set /a %~1 += 1
  )
  set "_S="
  exit /b

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~bp

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jl66ConsultantAuthor Commented: 2015-07-28

Thanks for the info. However I need a count of how many '\' there are in the str. How to get it?

LVL 90

oBdACommented: 2015-07-28

This should do the trick:

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LVL 63

Bill PrewIT / Software Engineering ConsultantCommented: 2015-07-28

jl66ConsultantAuthor Commented: 2015-07-30

Excellent! Thanks for bp's comment.

How to count a special character in a string with window batch?

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