"For" for files with spaces

Question

The question seems to be pretty easy, but I haven't found solution myself.

I have some folder, with 1 jpg-file inside it (foo bar.jpg) and this bat-file:

for /f %%f in ('dir /b /a:-d "*.jpg"') do echo "%%f" pause

For some reason instead of something like this:

C:\Test>echo foo bar.jpg foo bar.jpg

I see this:

C:\Test>echo "foo" "foo"

Despite I already put %%f inside quotes.

I.e. command prompt doesn't understand the space in file name.

How to fix it?

(In my real code I will use copy instead of echo).

jwdonahue · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-17 02:55:59Z

3

See help for.

for /f splits the results into tokens, based on the default or supplied delims. You need something like:

for /f "delims=" ....

Should capture the entire output. Another option is:

for /f "tokens=*" %%G ... do echo %%G

answered Feb 16, 2018 at 21:33

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2 Comments

For the second approach, why use two variables? How about for /f "tokens=*" %%f in ('dir /b /a:-d "*.jpg"') do (echo %%f)

@lit, never actually tried that until just now actually. Thanks for the tip!

karol · Accepted Answer · 2018-02-16 21:53:09Z

For me works:

for /f "delims=" %%f in ('dir /b /A:-D "*.jpg"') do @echo %%f

and returns:

foo bar.jpg