CMD file - delayed variable expansion

Question

I am writing a CMD/batch file (running under Win-7 cmd.exe) and I seem to be getting hung up on delayed variable expansion.

I am using text file input that is in the form:

9 .CN=ISRJX.OU=Linc.OU=thisco.O=UCOM.T=UCOM. 8-20-13

10 .CN=FXXLISHER.OU=Linc.OU=thisco.O=UCOM.T=UCOM. 10-13-13

11 .CN=QXX004F.OU=Linc.OU=thisco.O=UCOM.T=UCOM. 10-14-13

12 *.CN=QXX1001OB.OU=Linc.OU=thisco.O=UCOM.T=UCOM. 10-15-13

as contents in "inputfile.txt". Purpose is to extract the first word after ".CN=", at this point in the process.

Note that I can't strip based on number of chars before "CN=" because the number of chars will vary.

My script is:

setlocal enableextensions enableDelayedExpansion
REM @echo off
for /f "tokens=3 delims==." %%a in (inputfile.txt) do (
set "acct =%%a"
echo. %%a,%acct%
)
endlocal

I've tried every set of combination of quote, !, % etc. and both enabled & disabled delayed expansion, and still can't get this to work. For the most part, when I use ! I end up echoing the actual !. ie "echo !acct!" will echo the actual text "!acct!".

I have read many examples and answers, here and elsewhere, about delayed variable expansion. I just can't figure out how to work around it in this example, where I want "acct" to expand within the loop.

Suspect this is a simple punctuation problem, but I'm out of ideas. When I run this, I see acct set to the value for %%a, but when it echoes, clearly it doesn't expand to the new value -- instead it will echo whatever it was set to previously, or blank.

I have also tried disabledelayedexpansion , which makes no difference in my results (including when I use !acct! instead of %acct% .)

Answer 1

Remove the space after the acct variable name and use the ! marks.

@echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions EnableDelayedExpansion
for /f "tokens=3 delims==." %%A in (inputfile.txt) do (
    set "acct=%%A"
    echo. %%A,!acct!
)
endlocal