Special Characters contained in Variable used in String:Replace command...

[Arianax]

Hi all,

Got a tough one for you here. Tried asking this on many other forums but no real answer yet, just workarounds...

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SET String=Some stuff. Desc=Some more stuff. Some final stuff.
SET Rep=CHANGED

SET Modify=Desc=Some more stuff.

SET "New=!String:%Modify%=%Rep%!"

ECHO !New!

The problem with the above code is that it interprets the '=' symbol as part of the Find:Replace so we get the following output for !New!:

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Some stuff.Some more stuff. =CHANGED=Some more stuff. Some final stuff.

How can I change the syntax of the following command:

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SET "New=!String:%Modify%=%Rep%!"

So the '=' contained in the variable %Modify% isn't interpreted as part of the above command?

[jeb]

Hi Arianax,

simple: You can't

It's not possible to escape an equal sign in the search string.

There exist some pure batch solutions (also on Dostips), but I would recommend the easy to use and powerful solution from Dave JREPL.

This is a JScript/Batch hybrid from one of our honored, expert members.

If you still insist on using a pure batch solution, you can search this forum (probably tougher than writing your own solution).

One pseudo code solution could be:
Build a modified_string
1. Replace all hash signs with #H in your string
2. Replace all equal signs with #E in your string

Obviously the second point is problematic, too, but can be solved by
2b. Loop over all characters of the string and check if it is an equal sign


3. Do the same for your search string
4. Execute the replace expression result=!modified_string:modified_search=repalce!
5. Replace remaining #E back to equal signs by: result=!result:#E==!
6. Replace remaining #H back to equal signs by: result=!result:#H=#!

jeb