"| was unexpected at this time" batch for loop fix

Question

I am currently trying to make a batch script that finds if a program is installed on the given machine, and if it is it outputs it to a file. But, when I attempt at getting the string, I get a "| was unexpected at this time" error.

wmic product get name > C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Desktop\programswmic.txt
for /F "tokens=*" %%A in ('type C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Desktop\programswmic.txt | findstr /m "iTunes"') do (set var=%%A)
echo %var% > C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Desktop\endingoutput.txt

The output of the script is below:

C:\Users\Landon\Desktop>test.bat

C:\Users\Landon\Desktop>wmic product get name  1>C:\Users\Landon\Desktop\programswmic.txt
| was unexpected at this time.

C:\Users\Landon\Desktop>for /F "tokens=*" %A in ('type C:\Users\Landon\Desktop\programswmic.txt | findstr /m "iTunes"') do (set var=%A)

C:\Users\Landon\Desktop>

How do I fix this?

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Dec 13 '18 at 03:14

You need to escape the | character using a ^.

wmic product get name > C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Desktop\programswmic.txt
for /F "tokens=*" %%A in ('type C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Desktop\programswmic.txt^| findstr /m "iTunes"') do (set var=%%A)
echo %var% > C:\Users\%USERNAME%\Desktop\endingoutput.txt

"| was unexpected at this time" batch for loop fix

1 Answers1