MAKEMSI quickly and reliably creates MSI files in a non-programmatic way\Tips and TricksBatch FilesBatch File Tips and TricksSET CommandSubString Extraction

---

SubString Extraction

Sometimes you want to extract certain characters out of a bigger string or environment variable, this shows how it can be done:

@echo off
@rem *** Copy to "TryMe.cmd" and execute :-) ***
setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
cls

set   WholeString=123456789
set        Left20=%WholeString:~0,20%
set    Left4Chars=%WholeString:~0,4%
set   Right4Chars=%WholeString:~-4%
set  The3rdAnd4th=%WholeString:~2,2%
set   AllButFirst=%WholeString:~1%
set    AllButLast=%WholeString:~0,-1%

echo WholeString  = "%WholeString%"
echo.
echo Left20       = "%Left20%"       (note: wasn't padded to 20 characters)
echo Left4Chars   = "%Left4Chars%"
echo Right4Chars  = "%Right4Chars%"
echo The3rdAnd4th = "%The3rdAnd4th%"
echo AllButFirst  = "%AllButFirst%"
echo AllButLast   = "%AllButLast%"

Please email me any feedback, additional information or corrections. See this page online (look for updates) MAKEMSI© is (C)opyright Dennis Bareis 2003-2008 (All rights reserved). Monday March 08 2010 at 12:20pm Visit MAKEMSI's Home Page