Hello, I have a directory that contains a list of files all with the date they were created. for example: data^070208.dat. I would like to write a batch file that goes through this directory, finds todays files, and then copies them locally to my machine. I am having problems storing the filename substring in a variable to compare it with the date substring variable. Any help would be appreciated! thanks. @echo off setLocal EnableDelayedExpansion cd c:\temp ::*******Create String of date*********** set year=%date:~12,2% set day=%date:~7,2% set month=%date:~4,2% set dateString=%year%%month%%day% set y= FOR %%f IN (*.dat) DO ( set y=%%f set fileDate=%y:~10,6% IF fileDate==dateString xcopy c:\temp\y c:\tData echo file=%%f echo dateString=!dateString! echo fileDate=!fileDate! echo error-%errorlevel% )

Nevermind. Problem solved. I looked through some of the other questions and found this one: Subject: extract filename in batch + more Instead of comparing the two string variables I did the following: ::*******Create String of date*********** set year=%date:~12,2% set day=%date:~7,2% set month=%date:~4,2% set dateString=%year%%month%%day% dir /b c:\temp\*.dat | find "%dateString%" > Found.txt for /f %%a in (Found.txt) do xcopy %%a c:\temp\TestData

If you want to get the benefits of delayed expansion you have to mark the affected variables by ! and more there are misinterpreted substrings. @echo off SetLocal EnableDelayedExpansion cd c:\temp ::*******Create String of date*********** set year=%date:~12,2% set day=%date:~7,2% set month=%date:~4,2% set dateString=%year%%month%%day% set y= FOR %%f IN (*.dat) DO ( set y=%%f set fileDate=!y:~5,6! IF fileDate==dateString xcopy C:\temp\!y! C:\tData echo file=!y! echo dateString=!dateString! echo ErrorLevel=!errorlevel! )