batch-file Best Practices Quotes
Example
Most online batch scripts come with a lot of quote issues.
Examples and Solutions
Example A
if %var%==abc echo Test
This code works - when the content of %var% does not contains space or other special characters. Now let's assume %var% contains 1 whitespace. Now cmd.exe sees:
if ==abc echo Test
This would cause a failure because cmd.exe doesn't understand this syntax.
Solution A
if "%var%"=="abc" echo Test
Using quotes, cmd.exe sees the entire %var%(including space and special characters) as only one normal string. Yet this is not the safest comparison method. The safest one uses echo, pipe, and findstr.
Example B
cd C:\User\Spaced Name\Spaced FileName.txt
cd would only change directory to C:\User\Spaced, as cd only accepts one path argument.
Solution B
Simply by adding quotes around the path, the issue would be solved.
cd "C:\User\Spaced Name\Spaced FileName.txt"
There are also a few examples that work better using quotes, like the set /a statement, etc. But, when one works on strings that contain spaces or special characters, it is usually much safe to use quotes.
