Set output of a command as a variable (with pipes)

Question

Can you redirect the output of a command to a variable with pipes?

I haven\'t tried much as I haven\'t been able to think of anything to try, but I have tried one me

Answer 1

THIS DOESN'T USE PIPEs, but requires a single tempfile
I used this to put simplified timestamps into a lowtech daily maintenance batfile

We have already Short-formatted our System-Time to HHmm, (which is 2245 for 10:45PM)
I direct output of Maint-Routines to logfiles with a $DATE%@%TIME% timestamp;
. . . but %TIME% is a long ugly string (ex. 224513.56, for down to the hundredths of a sec)

SOLUTION OVERVIEW:
1. Use redirection (">") to send the command "TIME /T" everytime to OVERWRITE a temp-file in the %TEMP% DIRECTORY
2. Then use that tempfile as the input to set a new variable (I called it NOW)
3. Replace

echo $DATE%@%TIME% blah-blah-blah >> %logfile%

      with

echo $DATE%@%NOW% blah-blah-blah >> %logfile%

====DIFFERENCE IN OUTPUT:
BEFORE:

SUCCESSFUL TIMESYNCH 29Dec14@222552.30

AFTER:

SUCCESSFUL TIMESYNCH 29Dec14@2252

ACTUAL CODE:

TIME /T > %TEMP%\DailyTemp.txt
SET /p NOW=<%TEMP%\DailyTemp.txt
echo $DATE%@%NOW% blah-blah-blah >> %logfile%

AFTERMATH:
All that remains afterwards is the appended logfile, and constantly overwritten tempfile. And if the Tempfile is ever deleted, it will be re-created as necessary.