Use an expanded variable in for loop

Question

I would like to know if there is a way where I can use a for loop on an expanded variable.

Is it something recommended or which can be done?

I have a script which reads a text file which has many dimensions such as State%%20Country, City%%20Country, etc. I save them into a variable (lets call it !P!). So !P1! now has:

!P1!
City%%20Country
State%%20Country
...

The script runs a for loop and reads each row and based on that the value of !P1! changes.

I would like to know or appreciate if some one can let me know I can loop over the variable as I would like to replace the %%20 which is part of the string contained in !P1! with Space.

So what I am trying is :

for /F "delims==" %%A in ('!P1!') do ...

I know this wont work, but can someone let me know if there is a way to do this or if this is the right approach?

Is a batch file really the best way to process this sort of data? — tadman, Oct 10 '17 at 19:45
Don't put single quotes around text files in `for` loop sets. — SomethingDark, Oct 10 '17 at 20:33
Possible duplicate of [String replacement in batch file](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2772456/string-replacement-in-batch-file) — DSway, Oct 11 '17 at 00:03
See also https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5273937/how-to-replace-substrings-in-windows-batch-file — DSway, Oct 11 '17 at 00:04

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 11 '17 at 02:33

0

@ECHO Off
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

SET "p1=something%%%%20or%%%%20other"
SET "repl=%%%%20"
SET "p1=!p1:%repl%= !"
FOR %%a IN (%p1%) DO ECHO %%a

Not sure whether your problem has to do with a variable named !p1! or you are using delayed expansion on variable p1. The above may assist.

answered Oct 11 '17 at 02:33

Magoo

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You think the environment variables have the name `P1`, `P2`, ... but you are wrong. Anks named the environment variables `!P1!`, `!P2!`, ... Yes, really, the environment variable names contain at begin and end an exclamation mark. You might not believe that, but it's true. This question by Anks is a duplicate of [Replace %%20 in string using windows batch script](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/46416238/) where the working code is already posted (and accepted). The problem here is that Anks has no idea what he/she is doing. – Mofi Oct 11 '17 at 06:14
@Mofi : Even though I've been unemployed now effectively for 16 years, I still can't find the time to research prior answers - never mind remember them. I suppose I just assume that since the automatic reaction these days is to google it, and that would be my first port of call if I had a problem, then OP would have done so. I really don't have the time or inclination to do the basic research that should have been done before posting a question. Congratulations on your power of recall. – Magoo Oct 11 '17 at 07:19
@Mofi I have the answer from the previous question, want to try/learn this approach. – Anks Oct 11 '17 at 19:51

Use an expanded variable in for loop

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