Windows% PATH% variable - how to split into ';' in the cmd shell again

Question

I just checked out https://stackoverflow.com/a/212960/ which was very useful and worked great on Windows XP. But using Windows 7 it does not work for some unclear reason.

The PATH variable looks like this:

 C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common;C:\Windows\system32;C:\Windows;C:\Windows\System32\Wbem;C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\;C:\Program Files (x86)\QuickTime\QTSystem\ 

It obviously contains \, as well as the semicolons that I use to separate in the package that contains this FOR loop:

  FOR /F "delims=;" %%A IN ("%PATH%") DO ( echo %%A ) 

Execution does not cause an error, but provides only one (first) token

 C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Common 

I had no idea why FOR completes and plays with several options that were offered on the network, but no one did the job.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Christian

Answer 1

You could do it that way.

 for %%A in ("%path:;=";"%") do ( echo %%~A ) 

( Source )

The problem with what you have is that with the for /F %%A switch, only the first token is indicated. You would have to do for /f "tokens=1-9 delims=;" %%A in ("%PATH%") for /f "tokens=1-9 delims=;" %%A in ("%PATH%") and read in %%A through %%I this way.

Answer 2

Combining everything that has been learned on this and various other stackoverflow pages, OP can be expanded to:

How to ensure that the PATH variable has unique values?

What can be done this way using array variables:

 REM usage: call :make_path_unique VARNAME "%VARNAME%" REM 1: splits VARNAME on ';' and builds an array of unique values (case insensitive) REM 2: glues the array back into a single variable REM 3: set the VARNAME to this newly unique-ified collection. REM REM From: various StackOverflow pages: REM http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5471556/pretty-print-windows-path-variable-how-to-split-on-in-cmd-shell REM http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3262287/make-an-environment-variable-survive-endlocal REM http://stackoverflow.com/questions/14879105/windows-path-variable-how-to-split-on-in-cmd-shell-again REM :make_path_unique setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion set VNAME=%~1 set VPATH=%~2 set I=0 for %%A in ("%VPATH:;=";"%") do ( set FOUND=NO for /L %%B in (1,1,!I!) do ( if /I "%%~A"=="!L[%%B]!" set FOUND=YES ) if NO==!FOUND! ( set /A I+=1 set L[!I!]=%%~A ) ) set FINAL=!L[1]! for /L %%n in (2,1,!I!) do ( set FINAL=!FINAL!;!L[%%n]! set L[%%n]= ) for %%P in ("!FINAL!") do ( endlocal set %VNAME%=%%~P ) exit /b 0 

Summary of steps:

• to split the PATH loop into ';' and proper quotes management
  • for a loop looking through all previously saved paths
  • extends the array only if it is a new path to add
• glue the array package together, clearing the array variable when we go
• replace path and clear temporary variables
• Return from function without errors.

called of course with

 set PATH=%PATH%;%MY_PATH_ADDITIONS% call :make_path_unique PATH "%PATH%"