.BAT file programming help needed

[jcash]

Hello again my friends at ABXZONE. It's been a while since my last visit, but I've come to depend on the experts here to help, when no other help is available.

I am trying to convert an OS/2 command file (.CMD) to work on Win9x, Win2k and WinXP. The problem is that with OS/2, there are functions (via REXX) that are not available in standard windows .BAT files. To further complicate things, utility programs (XBATCH, KIX, etc) cannot be loaded on the Windows machines.

PROBLEM: Copy file <anyfile>.DAT file to a sub-directory for archiving. There is the possibility that this .BAT file will be run multiple times in one day, so the filename must be unique with each execution.

The OS/2 REXX (.CMD) file, took the current date and time, removed the "/" from the date and the ":" from the time, and made the filename with what is left....example 09022004082637.DAT = MMDDYYYYHHMMSS.DAT.

I have been able to put the current date and time into varables, but haven't been sucessfull in removing the "/" and ":" to make a valid filename.

If you have any tricks or tips to do string manipulation in standard Windows .BAT files, PLEASE provide examples if you can.

Jim

[Logan_abx]

jcash,

If you have command extensions enabled (by default, they are) on Windows XP or Windows 2000, the following will work to create the file name you're looking for.

 @echo off
 for /F "tokens=2,3,4 delims=/ " %%a in ('echo %DATE%') DO set HDATE=%%a%%b%%c
 for /f "tokens=1,2,3 delims=:. " %%a in ('echo %TIME%') DO set HTIME=%%a%%b%%c
 set HFILENAME=%HDATE%%HTIME%.dat
 echo %HFILENAME%

[jcash]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I tried this code on a Windows 98SE machine and get a Syntax error. I'm not sure exactly how this should work, but let me take a guess.

It is trying to "token-ize" the results of 'ECHO %time%' using the ":" as a deliminator. I don't see how the variables %b and %c are set or what the "/f" does. Perhaps it won't work on Win98?

Thanks

Jim

EDIT: it works perfectly in WINXP.....

[yamawho]

Can't help you with this one ... I just wanting to say hi

[Logan_abx]

Jim,

It won't work on 98. Several of the features used here are command extensions added in NT/2000. I missed the bit in your message where you needed it to work under 98. Sorry about that.

That said, Windows 98 is a lot more difficult. The batch language on that particular OS is as crippled as it gets. I HAVE seen date and time parsers that didn't use any external process for Windows 98, but they're nasty, and would have to be customized (if you can follow the obfuscated batch code) for what you want. You can look here: http://www.pressroom.com/~tglbatch/pdate.html for something that works (supposedly -- I have no way to test it) in Windows 98.

Personally, I'd create a very small program that you can execute that will write out the correct formatted date and time to stdout.

Oh yes -- how the original works. When you do a for /f, you invoke a parser that processes each line of input (if there were multiple lines returned by the command, each one would be processed). The variable name you pass is actually the FIRST name, which gets the value of the first parsed token. Each subsequent parsed token goes to name+1 (character wise). So, if you use %%x, the variables would be x, y and z.

Under XP or Windows 2000, you can just type in 'help for' at the command line, and it will show you the syntax information for this.

Logan

[KingTermite]

Sorry Jim....I didn't get here until late in the game.

I think the link Logan posted will work well...it claims to work with Win98. If you take that and either use the parsed date/time to append to each file name or create a subdirectory with that name to copy files in to you should be good I think.

[chrisd]

For a scripting language that works on Win9x and up, check out Kixtart:

http://www.kixtart.org/

Plenty of examples and such there. If you need further help with it, just ask

Also, REXX for Windows:
http://www.quercus-sys.com/prexxw35.htm

[KingTermite]

Originally Posted by chrisd

For a scripting language that works on Win9x and up, check out Kixtart:

http://www.kixtart.org/

Plenty of examples and such there. If you need further help with it, just ask

Also, REXX for Windows:
http://www.quercus-sys.com/prexxw35.htm

Good Point....I had forgotten there was a REXX version for Windows. If you want to install scripting engines, then I'd put Perl (ActivePerl) on the machine(s) and have Perl Scripts.

[jcash]

Hello Yamawho. Glad to see you are still here.
Thanks to Logan and ChrisD and the "King Termite" for your replies....

but...(there is always a butt, and it's usually me)...but

I can't add any scripting language processors to these machines, and "whatever" must work with Win98, Win2K, and WinXP without modification....That said, I came up with a solution...it will even work in DOS, and OS/2.

I used an inline QBASIC program (Qbasic was distributed by Microsoft on the Windows Resource Kits, so our corporate watchdogs with their fancy detection software bypassed it). If anyone is interested in the code, I can post it on Friday.

[Logan_abx]

Jim,

QBasic isn't distributed as part of XP, though... I know you can install it by copying it off of a 98 CD, but this isn't that much different from installing REXX, or a simple time utility.

Logan

[jcash]

I didn't actually "INSTALL" QBASIC on any machine. We have a common "SOFTWARE" network share that now has the "QBASIC.EXE and QBASIC.HLP" files. In my .BAT procedure, I just execute QBASIC from the utility directory on the server, and don't load it on each machine. This snip of code sets an enviornment variable "FILENAME" to be MMDDYYYHHMMSS.DAT.

SET PGMPATH=C:\DATAFILES

:: Make the QBASIC script

type %0 | find "    " | > %PGMPATH%\FNAME.BAS

:: Run the script

F:\UTILITY\qbasic.exe /run %PGMPATH%\FNAME.BAS

:: Run the batch file created by the QBASIC script to set FILENAME variable

CALL %PGMPATH%\FNAME.BAT

COPY %PGMPATH%\CTCORD.DAT %PGMPATH%\LOGS\%FILENAME%

ERASE %PGMPATH%\FNAME.BAS
ERASE %PGMPATH%\FNAME.BAT

goto DONE

:QBASIC
:: All QBASIC code MUST be indented four or more spaces.
:: NOTHING else in this batch file may be indented four spaces.
    DIM HH AS STRING
    DIM MM AS STRING
    DIM SS AS STRING
    DIM MO AS STRING
    DIM DD AS STRING
    DIM YYYY AS STRING
    MO = MID$(DATE$,1,2)
    DD = MID$(DATE$,4,2)
    YYYY = MID$(DATE$,7,4)
    HH = MID$(TIME$,1,2)
    MM = MID$(TIME$,4,2)
    SS = MID$(TIME$,7,2)
    OPEN "FNAME.BAT" FOR OUTPUT AS #1
    PRINT #1, "SET FILENAME=" + MO + DD + YYYY + HH + MM + SS + ".DAT"
    CLOSE #1
    SYSTEM

:DONE

Thanks Again, and I'll try to frequent ABXZONE more often.

[Darkfalz]

Holy crap, there's a lot of extra stuff the FOR command can do under XP. Shame I didn't have that power in the DOS/Win9x days! Nowadays of course for repetive functions and stuff I just write stuff in VB.

[Logan_abx]

Originally Posted by Darkfalz

Holy crap, there's a lot of extra stuff the FOR command can do under XP. Shame I didn't have that power in the DOS/Win9x days! Nowadays of course for repetive functions and stuff I just write stuff in VB.

Try looking at all of the new stuff the SET command can do. It can prompt a user for an entry, extract substrings, perform math, do string replacements. I think Microsoft noticed that every other operating system had a real batch processing language, and tried to 'hack' in a few features.

Logan