I have a .CSV that I am trying to sort through to create another file from the data, but when I run it through, it skips blank entries. For example, if a line is
valu
This is the standard behaviour of the FOR/F loop, consecutive delims only used as one delimiter.
But you can use a workaround with a second FOR/F.
Prefix each column with another character, split the line at the delim and remove the prefix.
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
FOR /F "delims=" %%L in (test.bat) DO (
set "line=%%L,,,,,,,,"
set "line=#!line:,=,#!"
FOR /F "tokens=1,2,3,4 delims=," %%a in ("!line!") DO (
set "param1=%%a"
set "param2=%%b"
set "param3=%%c"
set "param4=%%d"
set "param1=!param1:~1!"
set "param2=!param2:~1!"
set "param3=!param3:~1!"
set "param4=!param4:~1!"
echo !param1! !param2! !param3! !param4!
)
)
As jeb already mentiones in his answer, for /F
treats consecutive delimiters as one. To avoid that, you could replace each delimiter ,
by ","
and enclose each full line by ""
, so each field appears as being enclosed within ""
, which can easily be removed finally by the ~
modifier of the for /F
variable; so there is no need to do any more string manipulations (like sub-string expansion) later on:
@echo off
setlocal EnableExtensions DisableDelayedExpansion
for /F "usebackq delims=" %%# in ("file.csv") do (
set "LINE=%%#"
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
for /F "tokens=1-4 delims=," %%A in (^""!LINE:,="^,"!"^") do (
endlocal
echo Field 1: %%~A
echo Field 2: %%~B
echo Field 3: %%~C
echo Field 4: %%~D
setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
)
endlocal
)
endlocal
This might not work properly if the data contain ,
characters by themselves (remember that ,
is not considered as delimiter in case a field is enclosed within ""
in the original CSV file).
The toggling of delayed expansion is done to not lose any exclamation marks in the data.