Windows Batch check if variable starts with, ends with and contains a specific string

Question

I\'m trying to check if a variable in a batch file starts with \" contains BETA somewhere and ends with \").

Is it possible? A

Answer 1

@echo off
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set quote="
set variable="This must be true: BETA")
echo Variable=!variable!
if "!variable:~0,1!" equ "!quote!" (
   rem Start with "
   if "!variable:BETA=!" neq "!variable!" (
      rem Contains BETA
      if "!variable:~-2!" equ "!quote!^)" (
         echo TRUE: it start with " contains BETA and ends with "^)
      ) else (
         echo FALSE, it does not ends with "^)
      )
   ) else (
      echo FALSE, it does not contain BETA
   )
) else (
   echo FALSE, it does not start with "
)

Output:

Variable="This must be true: BETA")
TRUE: it start with " contains BETA and ends with ")

• The way to deal with unbalanced quotes (and with other special Batch characters, indeed) is to use Delayed Expansion: this way the quotes and special characters don't appear in the command line being parsed.

• Remember to escape with ^ any right parentheses that are not closing parentheses of command blocks.

• An easy way to check if a variable contain a given string is try to eliminate the string from variable value: if the result is different to the original value, then the variable contain the string.

Antonio