String parsing with batch scripting

Question

I have a file called pictures.xml and it contains some pictures information like:

<ResourcePicture Name="a.jpg">
        <GeneratedPicture Name="b.jpg"/>            
        <GeneratedPicture Name="c.jpg"/>
</ResourcePicture>

<ResourcePicture Name="z1.jpg">
        <GeneratedPicture Name="z2.jpg"/>
        <GeneratedPicture Name="z3.jpg"/>
        <GeneratedPicture Name="z4.jpg"/>
</ResourcePicture>

What I want do do is to get each line in for loop and print the names of the pictures. Sample output like:

a.jpg - b.jpg c.jpg
z1.jpg - z2.jpg z3.jpg z4.jpg

I can get each line but can't get the name attributes

    for /f "Delims=/" %%a in (pictures.xml) do ( 
        echo %%a
    )

MichaelS · Accepted Answer · 2015-06-23 09:40:45Z

1

This should work:

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
FOR /F "tokens=*" %%a in (pictures.xml) DO (
    SET b=%%a
    SET b=!b:"=+!
    FOR /F "delims=+ tokens=2" %%c in ("!b!") DO (
        ECHO %%c
    )
)

This will output only something.jpg. Here the expülanation: First we split the file into lines. Now we want to find the something.jpg in each line and output only these tokens. So we can split the lines with " as delimeter and take the second substring. But we can't use " as delim because CMD won't accept this. That's why we first replace " with +. If + can appear in your code use a different character that is accepted as delimeter but won't be in your xml file.

Finally we can now split eacht line using + as delimeter and take the 2nd substring of each line which will result in only the file names.

EDIT: Here's how to check if your line starts with "ResourcePicture":

@ECHO OFF
SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
for /f "tokens=*" %%a in (pictures.xml) do (
    SET b=%%a
    SET prefix=!b:~1,15!
    IF !prefix!==ResourcePicture (
        SET b=!b:"=+!
        FOR /F "delims=+ tokens=2" %%c in ("!b!") DO (
            ECHO %%c
        )
    )
)

edited Jun 23, 2015 at 9:40

answered Jun 23, 2015 at 8:54

MichaelS

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4 Comments

ozcanovunc Over a year ago

Is there a way that I can figure out if the current line contains ResourcePicture with a simple if statement as well?

MichaelS Over a year ago

"contains" is not that simple but you can check if it starts with "<ResourcePicture". I'll add the code to my answer.

MichaelS Over a year ago

Done. The key is SET prefix=!b:~1,15!. This skips the first char of the string and takes 15 chars starting with the second index so "<ResourcePicture Name="a.jpg">" becomes "ResourcePicture".

ozcanovunc Over a year ago

You are a pro! Thank you so much again.

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