I am trying to capture the first word of a text file to a variable. I can do it fine in Windows NT, but cant seem to get it in Windows 98. I am using some third party utilities to try to do this (sed.exe and sv2.exe). This is what i have so far, but I cant get it to work sed -n 1p folder~1.txt|sed "s/^ *//;s/ .*$//">fname.txt type fname.txt|s2v lname Any assistance would be extremely helpful. Thanks.

Hi Pete, Get the prefix utility here: http://www.golden.triangle.com/PREFIX.ZIP and use this BAT: ::** @echo off > quit.bat prefix "setter " < myfile.txt > my.bat > setter.bat echo set MYvar=%%1 my ::** HTH M2 If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

I cant get this to work.

What does it do? Or what does it not do? M2 If at first you don't succeed, you're about average.

Hi Pete You seem to be having a problem getting the first word of a text file. I do'nt know why the existing programs do'nt work. I could write a C program to do this, but if you want a batch file for Win98 to do this it alot more difficult to write. Whats in the text file? there's no ":" ">" and "<" charactors that may cause problems. Is the text seperated by spaces or is it the only word on the first line. What name do you want for the Environment Variable.

I found a different utility to do it with. XSet.exe