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Escape Characters

Escaping special characters in DOS batch when delayed variable expansion is enabled or disabled.

Description: The command processor handles some characters in a special way and these characters won`t show up in the output as expected when using i.e. the ECHO command. The exclamation mark is handled differently if Delayed Expansion is enabled or disabled.
Script: Download: BatchEscape.bat  
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 @ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS

SETLOCAL DISABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
echo.delayed expansion is DISABLED
echo.1. ^^! :exclamation mark
echo.2. !! :exclamation mark
echo.3. ! :exclamation mark
echo.4. %% :percent
echo.5. ^& :ampersand
echo.6. ^| :vertical line
echo.7. ^^ :caret
echo.

SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
echo.delayed expansion is ENABLED
echo.1. ^^! :exclamation mark
echo.2. !! :exclamation mark
echo.3. ! :exclamation mark
echo.4. %% :percent
echo.5. ^& :ampersand
echo.6. ^| :vertical line
echo.7. ^^ :caret
echo.
Script Output:
 DOS Script Output 
delayed expansion is DISABLED
1. ^! :exclamation mark
2. !! :exclamation mark
3. ! :exclamation mark
4. % :percent
5. & :ampersand
6. | :vertical line
7. ^ :caret

delayed expansion is ENABLED
1. ! :exclamation mark
2. exclamation mark
3. exclamation mark
4. % :percent
5. & :ampersand
6. | :vertical line
7. ^ :caret