Extract version from XML with Windows Batch

Question

I have a XML file generated by Visual Studio that contains the version of the product, hence the tag will always be there just the value changes. I need to extract the version with windows command line somehow. This is the tag in the file and I need only the version number "1.0.0.0":

 <?define BuildVersion = 1.0.0.0 ?>

Is there a built in tool (maybe with findstr) that can accomplish this?

Based on [this post](https://stackoverflow.com/a/40784439/276311) I came up with this: `for /F "tokens=4 delims= " %%E in (' findstr "BuildVersion" "file.xml" ') do @echo %%E` — Adriano P, Mar 28 '18 at 12:59
Use a single % instead of two when running from the command line. — Adriano P, Mar 28 '18 at 13:04
@AdrianoP, the spaces around `=` are optional, so I would include that character to the delimiters like `delims== ` and use `tokens=3` instead... — aschipfl, Mar 28 '18 at 13:24
In general it is a better idea to use a language that is capable of handling XML data natively rather than treating them like normal text... — aschipfl, Mar 28 '18 at 13:25

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 28 '18 at 13:13

Use for /F loop to parse the output of findstr and extract the text you need (using space as delimiter, get the 4th token):

for /F "tokens=4 delims= " %%E in ('
    findstr "BuildVersion" "file.xml" 
') do @echo %%E

Use a single % instead of two when running from the command line though.

For a more comprehensive information please check this post.

Extract version from XML with Windows Batch

1 Answers1