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I have a bunch of dynamically created *.BAT files. These BAT files are used to create folders in a server. Just one line in each BAT file, such as: MKDIR \NetworkShare\abc\123

This "abc\123" string is from a database.

It runs OK for a while to create thousands subfolders on demand until today it stopped creating a special subfolder which has a "close single quote" (Alt + 0146 if typing from dos prompt) in the string.

I did some research and found that this "close single quote" is an extended ASCII character. It can't be saved properly in ANSI BAT file (end up as something else). I tried UNICODE and UTF-8 BAT file, but it doesn't work.

The only near-close solution is that I tried a binary editor to make sure it's code 146, but code 146 gives me Æ (ALT-146) not "close single quote" (Alt + 0146).

I know I can manually type special characters in DOS prompt (by using keyboard Alt + ). But is there a way to properly save this "close single quote" (Alt + 0146) in BAT file so I can execute them dynamically?

The host system is Windows Server 2003 US-English.

Thomas Dickey
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Simon
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  • Does adding a `chcp 65001` to the bat file help? See http://stackoverflow.com/questions/388490/unicode-characters-in-windows-command-line-how – Anders Lindahl Mar 24 '12 at 05:54
  • @AndersLindahl: ha!, had the same answer at the same time :-) – Renaud Bompuis Mar 24 '12 at 05:56
  • I wish people wouldn't use the term "extended ASCII", it's meaningless. Alt codes are based on Windows code page 1252, which matches Unicode except for the character `Ÿ`. – Mark Ransom Apr 02 '23 at 01:39

2 Answers2

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Thank you for this CHCP 65001 trick. It leads to proper solution:

I took follow steps to resolve the issue:

+++++++++++++++++++

Prepare the BAT Text File (either manually or dynamically)

+++++++++++++++++++

(1) Make the first line blank (this is necessary, because there are hidden chars in the first line for UTF-8 text file)

(2) Put CHCP 65001 as second line

(3) main line here: MKDIR \networkshare\abc(right single quote-->this is special extended ASCII char)\123

(4) make sure the BAT file saved as UTF-8

+++++++++++++++++++

Now it's the CMD.EXE trick

+++++++++++++++++++

(1) Start cmd.exe

(2) open cmd.exe black screen property

(3) make sure the black screen font is "true type" i.e. "TT" like. By default, it is raster font, can not handle special ascii code properly. (This is the key step)

(4) now I can run my BAT to handle those extended ASCII chars properly.

Simon
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  • NOTE: the above solution only works in Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2 server; Not Windows 2003 server. In Windows 2003 server, CHCP 65001 doesn't work. – Simon Mar 27 '12 at 15:40
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Try changing the code page of your batch file to UTF-8: Insert this line at the top of your batch file and save the file as UTF-8:

chcp 65001

Be careful though: Creating folders with non-ASCII letters can break some programs that may rely on older API of libraries, or just assume that all folder and file names are ASCII.

Peter Mortensen
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Renaud Bompuis
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