How can I add greater than and less than into a batch file variable

Question

When I try

@echo off
set PTag=^
echo %PTag%

I get nothing.

Now what\'s interesting is that if there\'s an empty line aft

Answer 1

set PTag=^ sets the value
to PTag

When you run echo %PTag% it expands to echo
which is an invalid redirection. You need to escape the < and > inside PTag by using this

set PTag=^^^

The first ^ escapes itself, then the next one escapes < or >

You can also use this

set "PTag=^"

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Reason for the second way: inside quotes ^ loses its special meaning

If it is a quote (") toggle the quote flag, if the quote flag is active, the following special characters are no longer special: ^ & | < > ( ).

^{How does the Windows Command Interpreter (CMD.EXE) parse scripts?}

most special characters (^ & ( ) < > | and also the standard delimiters , ; = SPACE TAB) lose their particular meaning as soon as ther are placed in between "", and the "" themselves do not become part of the variable value

^{Special Characters in Batch File}

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Now the variable will have the value ^ inside it, and it'll expand echo %PTag% to

echo ^

which is a valid command