I've got a batch script that runs through a file, but every time it hits a line with a less-than sign, it bombs. Here's the script: REM Gets line from earlier SET Line=%* REM Remove quotes from the line SET Line=%Line:"=% REM Tests the line. This is in a loop. IF "%Line:~0,6%"=="[HKEY_" FOR /F "tokens=5 delims=\]" %%A IN ('ECHO.%Line%') DO ECHO %Line% It can parse through a file that contains stuff from a registry file, but when it runs across a line with a less-than sign, it complains, saying "less-than was unexpected at this time." How can I get around that? How can I strip out the less-than signs like I can strip out the quotes?

how does the file that you are going to parse look like? and what is your final output look like?

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00 [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\etcetc] [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\blahblah] "Coors"="C:\\Coordinates" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Yadayada] "CodeDir"="C:\\Code" "LocDir"="C:\\Locators" [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\yeahyeah] "Models"="<models><model name= yadda yadda yadda Label=\"Model Dataset\" dataset-type=\"DVA\" optional=\"true\"/></model></models> "