I am studying batch programming and i cant literally distinguish between %~2 and %2 .Also mention an example please.
3 Answers
%2 substitutes in the second argument. %~2 substitutes the second argument but removes any quote marks:
C:\Temp>type t.cmd @echo off echo %%2 is: %2 echo %%~2 is: %~2 C:\Temp>t.cmd first second third %2 is: second %~2 is: second C:\Temp>t.cmd first "second third" %2 is: "second third" %~2 is: second third At the command prompt, type help for to find the options when expanding variables (which mostly work even if not in a for command):
In addition, substitution of FOR variable references has been enhanced. You can now use the following optional syntax: %~I - expands %I removing any surrounding quotes (") %~fI - expands %I to a fully qualified path name %~dI - expands %I to a drive letter only %~pI - expands %I to a path only %~nI - expands %I to a file name only %~xI - expands %I to a file extension only %~sI - expanded path contains short names only %~aI - expands %I to file attributes of file %~tI - expands %I to date/time of file %~zI - expands %I to size of file %~$PATH:I - searches the directories listed in the PATH environment variable and expands %I to the fully qualified name of the first one found. If the environment variable name is not defined or the file is not found by the search, then this modifier expands to the empty string The modifiers can be combined to get compound results: %~dpI - expands %I to a drive letter and path only %~nxI - expands %I to a file name and extension only %~fsI - expands %I to a full path name with short names only %~dp$PATH:I - searches the directories listed in the PATH environment variable for %I and expands to the drive letter and path of the first one found. %~ftzaI - expands %I to a DIR like output line In the above examples %I and PATH can be replaced by other valid values. The %~ syntax is terminated by a valid FOR variable name. Picking upper case variable names like %I makes it more readable and avoids confusion with the modifiers, which are not case sensitive. 3 Comments
Well, that's simple. %2 is the second parameter passed to your bat file. Adding ~ will remove quotes from your variable.
Consider the following short bat file (test.bat):
@ECHO OFF ECHO %2 ECHO %~2 Wenn you call your bat file with test.bat p1 p2 it will output:
p2
p2
Now try test.bat p1 "p2"! this time the output will be:
"p2"
p2
So if you don't have any quotes the output will be the same and if you do have some %2 will keep them and %~2 will remove them.
Comments
%2 is the second argument passed to the batch file.
myfile.bat firstArg secondArg because arguments are often file paths there is some extra syntax to extract parts of the path.
%~2 removes any "" on the second argument.
%~1 - expands %1 removing any surrounding quotes (") %~f1 - expands %1 to a fully qualified path name %~d1 - expands %1 to a drive letter only %~p1 - expands %1 to a path only %~n1 - expands %1 to a file name only %~x1 - expands %1 to a file extension only %~s1 - expanded path contains short names only %~a1 - expands %1 to file attributes %~t1 - expands %1 to date/time of file %~z1 - expands %1 to size of file %~$PATH:1 - searches the directories listed in the PATH environment variable and expands %1 to the fully qualified name of the first one found. If the environment variable name is not defined or the file is not found by the search, then this modifier expands to the empty string %~dp1 - expands %1 to a drive letter and path only %~nx1 - expands %1 to a file name and extension only %~dp$PATH:1 - searches the directories listed in the PATH environment variable for %1 and expands to the drive letter and path of the first one found. %~ftza1 - expands %1 to a DIR like output line possible duplicate: What does %~d0 mean in a Windows batch file?
3 Comments
%~f2 would be an expanded filename, %~2 without a letter in there is just to strip quotes.