Well... my forehead is now a bloody pulp... Try this batch file: @echo off set myvar=%ALLUSERSPROFILE% echo String to parse:[%myvar%] echo. for /f "usebackq tokens=1-7* delims=\" %%a in (`echo %myvar%`) do call :prtpath %%a %%b %%c %%d %%e %%f %%g goto EOF :prtpath echo Element 1 = %1 echo Element 2 = %2 echo Element 3 = %3 echo Element 4 = %4 echo Element 5 = %5 echo Element 6 = %6 echo Element 7 = %7 :EOF --------------------- Here are the results: String to parse:[C:\Documents and Settings\All Users] Element 1 = C: Element 2 = Documents Element 3 = and Element 4 = Settings Element 5 = All Element 6 = Users Element 7 = Notice that "...delims=\" and there is NO SPACE included there for a delimiter, however, it is tokenizing on \ as well as SPACE!!!! Is there a way around this behaviour? Thanks in advance!

duh.... the call to the :prtpath is the problem! call gets expanded to: :prtpath C: Documents and Settings All Users which is correctly mapped to: %1 = C: %2 = Documents %3 = and %4 = Settings %5 = All %6 = Users The trick is to double quote the strings that may contain spaces: for /f "usebackq tokens=1-7* delims=\" %%a in (`echo %myvar%`) do call :prtpath "%%a" "%%b" "%%c" "%%d" "%%e" "%%f" "%%g" oh well... maybe someone else will learn from my "pulpy" forehead!!!

Jrell... I have actually been searching high and low for topics regarding this issue and also have been beating my head against a wall. I am attempting something very similar. Although what you discuss above adds insight, the result of your double quotes is that you not only get the folder with spaces as a single token, but that passed variable actually contains those same double quotes. Here is what I found when using your modified code: String to parse:[C:\Documents and Settings\All Users] Element 1 = "C:" Element 2 = "Documents and Settings" Element 3 = "All Users" Element 4 = "" Element 5 = "" Element 6 = "" Element 7 = "" The quotes make it hard to reuse those values. My code is below: @echo off cls setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion dir /ad /b > dirlist.txt call :readdirlist goto eof :readdirlist REM FOR /F "tokens=1* delims=" %%G IN (dirlist.txt) DO (call :s_size %%G %%H) REM FOR /F "tokens=1* delims= " %%G IN (dirlist.txt) DO (call :s_size %%G) REM FOR /F "tokens=* delims=?" %%G IN (dirlist.txt) DO (call :s_size %%G) FOR /F "tokens=* delims=" %%G IN (dirlist.txt) DO (call :s_size "%%G") goto eof :s_size set folder=%1 echo %folder% goto eof :eof I am attemting something similar, but cant for instance read from the file, 'Documents and Settings' as one token. After finding your post, I now can get one token but it has quotes on it. Did you come up with any additional findings during your quest that may help me?