Parsing sets of variables from a string in a bat file - string

Question

I have a situation where I'm trying to keep a static list of related items in a string and parse them out as sets in a bat file.
SET RootPath=C:\Users\woodh\test\
SET FromPath=StuffFrom\
SET ToPath=StuffTo\
SET CTLNames='text1.txt,red_text1:text2.txt,white_text2:text3.txt,blue_text3:'
With CTLNames containing pairs of entries to be parsed and consumed in the job.
I did the following
:Step20
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------
rem loop thru all files in the control list processing each pair at a time
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------
FOR /F "delims=:" %%f IN (%CTLNames%) DO (
IF NOT "%%f" == "" (
CALL:BreakEntry "%%f"
)
)
:Finish
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------
rem -- Finish
rem ----------------------------------------------------------------
goto end
:BreakEntry
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------
rem loop thru all files in the control list processing each entry one at a time
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------
Set EntryLine=%~1
IF NOT "%EntryLine%" == "" (
ECHO %EntryLine%
FOR /F "tokens=1,2 delims=," %%a IN ("%EntryLine%") DO (
ECHO %%a
ECHO %%b
CALL:MoveThisFile %%a, %%b
)
)
goto:eof
But It's only processing the first pair of names and not continuing through the rest of the list.

Answer 1

Your question is confusing. You didn't explained what exactly is the purpose of your code nor the expected output, so we can only guess. So I guess that you have a series of pairs of values separated by colon, and that each pair of values is separated by comma. This way, the problem with your code is that for /F command does not iterate over several values when just one string is processed: the string is divided accordingly to "tokens and delims" options and the command is executed just one time. You need to use a different method to process all substring in the string.
This is the way I would do it:
#echo off
setlocal
SET "CTLNames=text1.txt,red_text1:text2.txt,white_text2:text3.txt,blue_text3:"
for %%f in ("%CTLNames::=" "%") do (
for /F "tokens=1,2 delims=," %%a in (%%f) do (
echo %%a
echo %%b
echo CALL :MoveThisFile %%a, %%b
)
)
I suggest you to remove the #echo off line and execute the program, so you may review what exactly is executed.

Answer 2

The reason why it doesn't work as expected (it only prints the 1st pair), is because for /f works on lines; CTLNames only consists of a line so a single iteration is needed.
The confusing part is that it still printed the 1st pair...that is because it actually did the split (on the 1st :) but by default for only cares about the 1st token (before the delim) and drops the rest. You can convince yourself by changing the line to:
FOR /F "tokens=* delims=:" %%f IN (%CTLNames%) DO (
you'll see that the value of %%f (because we instructed it to take all the tokens into account) is the whole line.
The reason why I asked if the COLON(:) is mandatory as a separator between pairs, is because you can also iterate over a non numeric list - no /f flag, but here you can't specify the delimiter so you must use a regular one: SPACE( ), COMMA(,), SEMICOLON(;), TAB, and maybe others (anyway COLON is not one of them) - so this loop:
for %%f in (text1.txt:red_text1 text2.txt:white_text2 text3.txt:blue_text3;) do (
echo %%f
)
- note that I used 3 separators: TAB, SPACE and SEMICOLON in the for loop (not sure how visible it is) -
would yield:
text1.txt:red_text1
text2.txt:white_text2
text3.txt:blue_text3
Or you could use regular separators everywhere, and give up at the pair concept altogether, but I don't know if this is what you want.
I wasn't able to solve the problem using COLON as a separator from a single for loop, but I was able to find a way. Here's your script (slightly modified):
#ECHO OFF
rem ECHO %CTLNames%
CALL :Step20 "%CTLNames%"
GOTO :eof
:Step20
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------
rem loop thru all files in the control list processing each pair at a time
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------
IF "" == "%~1" GOTO :eof
FOR /F "tokens=1* delims=:" %%f IN ("%~1") DO (
rem echo f: %%f
CALL :BreakEntry "%%f"
CALL :Step20 "%%g%
)
GOTO :eof
:BreakEntry
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------
rem loop thru all files in the control list processing each entry one at a time
rem -----------------------------------------------------------------
Set EntryLine=%~1
ECHO %EntryLine%
FOR /F "tokens=1,2 delims=," %%a IN ("%EntryLine%") DO (
ECHO %%a
ECHO %%b
rem CALL :MoveThisFile %%a, %%b
)
GOTO :eof
The main thing is (besides other small changes) that Step20 is a recursive function (label), and it uses the for loop to split the line, it processes the 1st token, then it calls itself on the remaining tokens (until there are no more left).
Note: the single quotes surrounding CTLNames should be removed.