How to escape both comma and closing parenthesis in WHERE clause of WMIC?

Question

I am trying to retrieve the modification date of a file in a locale-independent manner, using the following wmic command:

wmic DataFile WHERE Na         


        

Answer 1

The method below allows commas in the file path but fails if a closing parenthesis ) appears:

==> wmic DataFile WHERE (Name = "D:\\bat\\Unusual Names\\2c,comma.txt") get Name, LastModified
LastModified               Name
20160513080305.362206+120  d:\bat\unusual names\2c,comma.txt

Edit. The following example added in response to @Rublacava comments:

==> wmic DataFile WHERE (Name = "d:\\bat\\Unusual Names\\2c, comma\\2c,comma.txt") get Name, LastModified
LastModified               Name
20160514132334.866055+120  d:\bat\unusual names\2c, comma\2c,comma.txt

On the contrary, the method below allows a closing parenthesis ) in the file path but fails if a comma , appears:

==> wmic DataFile WHERE "Name = 'D:\\bat\\Unusual Names\\28(parens_29).txt'" get Name, LastModified
LastModified               Name
20160513104341.746838+120  d:\bat\unusual names\28(parens_29).txt

It does not look to exist a common approach for both comma , and closing parenthesis ) together in the file path e.g. 2c,comma_28(parens_29).txt.

However, here's a workaround using PowerShell:

powershell -Command Get-WmiObject -Query """Select * from CIM_DataFile where name = 'D:\\bat\\Unusual Names\\2c,comma_28(parens_29).txt'""" ^| select name, LastModified ^| ft -AutoSize
::
::  a bit more readable
::
powershell -Command Get-WmiObject -Query """Select * from CIM_DataFile where "^
  "name = 'D:\\bat\\Unusual Names\\2c,comma_28(parens_29).txt'""" ^
  ^| select name, LastModified ^| ft -AutoSize
::
:: even more readable
::
set "_filePath=D:\bat\Unusual Names\2c,comma_28(parens_29).txt"
powershell -Command Get-WmiObject -Query ^
  """Select * from CIM_DataFile where name = '%_filePath:\=\\%'""" ^
  ^| select name, LastModified ^| ft -AutoSize

Output (above code snipped pasted into an open cmd window):

==> powershell -Command Get-WmiObject -Query """Select * from CIM_DataFile where
 name = 'D:\\bat\\Unusual Names\\2c,comma_28(parens_29).txt'""" ^| select name,
LastModified ^| ft -AutoSize

name                                            LastModified
----                                            ------------
d:\bat\unusual names\2c,comma_28(parens_29).txt 20160513103717.765243+120

==> ::
==> ::  a bit more readable
==> ::
==> powershell -Command Get-WmiObject -Query """Select * from CIM_DataFile where "^
More?   "name = 'D:\\bat\\Unusual Names\\2c,comma_28(parens_29).txt'""" ^
More?   ^| select name, LastModified ^| ft -AutoSize

name                                            LastModified
----                                            ------------
d:\bat\unusual names\2c,comma_28(parens_29).txt 20160513103717.765243+120

==> ::
==> :: even more readable
==> ::
==> set "_filePath=D:\bat\Unusual Names\2c,comma_28(parens_29).txt"

==> powershell -Command Get-WmiObject -Query ^
More?   """Select * from CIM_DataFile where name = '%_filePath:\=\\%'""" ^
More?   ^| select name, LastModified ^| ft -AutoSize

name                                            LastModified
----                                            ------------
d:\bat\unusual names\2c,comma_28(parens_29).txt 20160513103717.765243+120

==>