I need to split "FLIGHT" records in a TXT file starting after 11th position, and identify next record as "ICAO". Sample input Flight§6805(ZBAA - RJAA) Departure§17:45 Flight§6812(YSSY - PHNL) Departure§06:30 Desired output: Flight§6805 ICAO§(ZBAA - RJAA) Departure§17:45 Flight§6812 ICAO§(YSSY - PHNL) Departure§06:30 I know how to execute BAT files, but do not know detailed syntax. This is to help a virtual airline manage a database. Thank you for your time.

I already have this from another thread to split a record at "#": @Echo OFF For /f "tokens=1,* delims=#" %%a in (%*) Do ( Echo.%%a If not "%%b"=="" Call :SPLIT %%b) GoTo :EOF :SPLIT For /f "tokens=1,* delims=#" %%a in ("%*") Do ( Echo.%%a If not "%%b"=="" Call :SPLIT %%b) GoTo :EOF I just don't know how to incorporate the split after the 11th character for records starting in "FLIGHT".

Maybe this will do it: @ECHO OFF for /f "usebackq delims=" %%a in ("your text file") do ( echo %%a|find /i "flight" if errorlevel 1 ( >>"newfile" echo %%a ) else ( for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=^(" %%b in ("%%a") do ( >>"newfile" echo %%b >>"newfile" echo ICAO§^(%%c ) ) ) Batch Variable how to

Close, it splits the FLIGHT record and adds in the new ICAO record as requested, but it also adds a phantom ICAO record further down. I'm going to try something.

I wanted to keep the request as simple as possible, but it seems I have to show you all the input records 'cause it's interfering with your code, sorry. This is a first series of input records, they'll eventually become one database record, somehow. :D Flight§6805(ZBAA - RJAA) Departure§17:45 Arrival§21:00 Equipment§MD-11 (C-FCAL) Distance§1329.43mi Days Flown§Su M T W Th F S Route§VYK A326 DONVO G597 SEL G585 JEC G597 VENUS.VENUS Notes§Class 5 Flight Line1§Delete Line2§Delete Line3§Delete The code split the FLIGHT records, prefixed the following record with ICAO, but there's a phantom ICAO record after NOTES. Flight§6805 ICAO(ZBAA - RJAA) Departure§17:45 Arrival§21:00 Equipment§MD-11 (C-FCAL) Distance§1329.43mi Days Flown§Su M T W Th F S Route§VYK A326 DONVO G597 SEL G585 JEC G597 VENUS.VENUS Notes§Class 5 Flight ICAO( Line1§Delete Line2§Delete Line3§Delete Also, the new ICAO record doesn't have the special character as identified in the code for some reason. Desired: ICAO§(ZBAA - RJAA) Actual output: ICAO(ZBAA - RJAA)

I have fixed problem with records that contain "flight" elsewhere in the line by using "findstr /b", but I can't replicate the missing delimiter.... The problem seems to be encoding related, my test output has them. Batch generally only deals with printable ASCII characters, some extended ansi and non printable characters will work sometimes.... Try pasting the delimiter into the script in place of the one I put in and try that instead... I have also tried changing the code page to what I'm using because it seems to be working for me. If it fails then there are other options to try. @ECHO OFF setlocal for /f "tokens=2 delims=:" %%z in ('2^>nul chcp') do set cp=%%z 2>&1 >nul chcp 437 for /f "usebackq delims=" %%a in ("your text file") do ( echo %%a|>nul findstr /i /b /l "flight" if errorlevel 1 ( >>"newfile" echo %%a ) else ( for /f "tokens=1,2 delims=^(" %%b in ("%%a") do ( >>"newfile" echo %%b >>"newfile" echo ICAO§^(%%c ) ) ) 2>&1 >nul chcp%cp% Batch Variable how to

Thanks Judago, I'll try this last code. About the delimiter, I switched to \ and things seem to work. I put them in myself during the extraction so I can use whatever suits your needs. TEST RESULTS: Only the first FLIGHT record was not split, no more phantom ICAO record, everything else looks good at first glance. If this is not possible to code, I can note the error and split record #1 manually. Off-topic: Is there a freeware file comparison tool I can use to compare input and output text files? We had utilities available for mainframe use, it would be nice to have something equivalent to check for changes, just to verify the changes I do at each step of file manipulation (there's many).