How to search and replace a string that have an equal-to sign “=” inside

Question

i have to search a string from a txt like Pippo.K=5 and replace it with Pippo.K=1. I need to search the entire string. What i did is:

set \"search=Pippo.K=5\         


        

Answer 1

Batch variable substring substitution does have limitations. Dealing with literal equal signs is one of them.

powershell "(gc \"%textFile%\") -replace '%search%','%replace%'"

would work. That PowerShell one-liner is a simple alternative to your for /f loop without that limitation.

---

If you prefer a for /F loop, if your text file is an ini-style file, try this:

@echo off & setlocal

set "searchItem=Pippo.K"
set "searchVal=5"
set "newVal=1"
set "textFile=test.txt"

>"outfile.txt" (
    for /f "eol=; usebackq tokens=1* delims==" %%I in ("%textFile%") do (
        if /I "%%~I"=="%searchItem%" (
            if "%%~J"=="%searchVal%" (
                echo %%I=%newVal%
            ) else echo %%I=%%J
        ) else (
            if not "%%~J"=="" (echo %%I=%%J) else echo %%I
        )
    )
)
move /y "outfile.txt" "%textFile%"

Be advised that if any of the items in your file has a blank value (e.g. valuename=), the equal sign will be stripped unless you add some additional logic.

You might also consider using ini.bat from this answer.