China DOS Union

Using the ECHO command to display " %~dpI" is the issue. Why is it that when writing a batch file, you have to use the statement ECHO %%~dpI in order to display " %~dpI"? Why does it show only one when using the echo command? I couldn't find any materials about this, so I'd like to ask brothers WILLSORT and 无奈何 to help solve it. Thanks in advance.

[ Last edited by willsort on 2006-6-8 at 12:34 ]

On the command line you use one %, in a batch file you use two %. It's not just the echo command; even for the %i in the for command has to be written as %%i in a batch file.

I think brother JonePeng misunderstood what I meant, hehe. In a batch file the FOR statement does have to use the form %%I, but I'd better give an example. First, thanks to brother JonePeng for being willing to help me. Now look at this example:

@echo off
echo %~f0
echo %%~f0

In this batch file, the result produced by the first ECHO is the full path of this batch file, while the second ECHO displays the characters "%~f0". What I don't understand now is, why do the two %% become one % when displayed with ECHO???

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Re bagpipe:

Your question involves two factors:

1. % is an ESCAPE character. It is usually translated as an escape character, but there are also more vivid names like disengage character, escape-away character, etc. That is to say, % not only escapes and replaces the specific string associated with it with a specific string, but it itself is also "escaped away." And similar to the escape character "\" in C language, double % will escape and reduce to a single %, while four % will reduce to two %.

2. for itself is a special command, somewhat like a specialized command interpreter, because implementing its function requires executing multiple statements, so it must also have the ability to parse and process the command line (specifically the command line after do). So when command/cmd implements for, it naturally reuses its own original command-line parsing module, therefore for has the characteristic of second-level escaping. The statement after do in for is parsed and interpreted in two stages: the first stage is when command/cmd reads in and interprets the for command line, the second stage is when for reads in and interprets the do command, and it will usually interpret the same command line multiple times.

Then we can note that when using command-line parameter variables and environment variables in do, double % is not needed. That is because after passing through the first-level escape process, these variables are replaced with specific immutable string constants, which participate in all execution processes of the for loop; but replacement variables are required to change dynamically during execution (in the sub-command line after do), and this change naturally still needs to be implemented through the escape character, so using double % becomes the inevitable choice.

In addition, it should also be noted that when using for on the command line, double % is not needed. This comes from the fact that the command interpreter handles the command line and batch processing differently. In early DOS versions, % was not regarded as an escape character on the command line, so it would not be escaped away, and therefore environment variables could not be directly referenced on the command line at that time. When using for, only one % is needed for for to perform escaping and reduction. In later versions of the command interpreter, support for command-line escaping was added (mainly support for environment variables), but the tradition of using a single % with command-line for was still preserved.

And delayed variable substitution in cmd is a special case, but it does not violate the escaping principle above; it is just that the environment variables in for are no longer constants.

[ Last edited by willsort on 2006-2-12 at 09:57 ]

Thanks to moderator WILLSORT for the reply. I seem to understand it a bit now. Thanks to both of you for your help. It's best when everyone works together. Thanks again!

Wow · ···································
^Ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha ^ha ha

Is the one above a madman??

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Question for (under the ms-dos environment):
If
%a%=b
%b%=2
then how do you associate a with 2? I found that %%a%% is not equal to 2

Originally posted by zhangxue at 2006-6-8 14:37:
Question for (under the ms-dos environment):
If
%a%=b
%b%=2
then how do you associate a with 2? I found that %%a%% is not equal to 2

Use this on the command line: call, echo %%a%% is enough.