Dear friends, This is my first post in this forum. Kindly correct me if i'm not adhering to any forum rules. I am a newbie to DOS batch file programming. Kindly help me solving the problem i am encountering for the past 4 days! I wrote the following code: @echo on :: HANDLE IMPROPER COMMAND LINE ARGUMENTS If %1=="" ( echo Provide input file name and the output directory exit /b ) If %2 == "" ( echo Provide input file name and the output directory exit /b ) set input=%1 :: HANDLE FILE NOT FOUND CONDITION -- START if not exist "%input%" ( echo File Not Found or Does not exist. exit /b ) :: HANDLE FILE NOT FOUND CONDITION -- END :: PROCESS FILE -- START if exist "%input%" ( for /f "tokens=1,2* delims=|" %%i in (%input%) do ( echo %%j > %2\Output.txt set executableFile="C:\Program Files\ScanSoft\RealSpeak 4.0\standard.exe" set language="Indian English" set speechDirectory="C:\Program Files\ScanSoft\RealSpeak 4.0\speech" set output=%2\Output.txt call %executableFile% %language% Sangeeta %speechDirectory% "%output%" set pcmFile=%%i.pcm rename "standard.pcm" %pcmFile% ) echo Completed generating '.pcm' files in this directory: %2 exit /b ) :: PROCESS FILE -- END I will be giving two input parameters to the batch file at the comand line. (1) Input File Name (2) Output directory First parameter is a text file containing the following data: 1|Mr. NameOne 2|Mr. NameTwo 3|Mr. NameThree As seen in the code, i am calling an executable, which runs perfectly. That executable will always generate a file called "standard.pcm". I have to rename it with the first token of the input file. Example: 1.pcm, 2.pcm, 3.pcm etc., Its parsing the first line properly, and renaming happens but from the second iteration, the variable doesn't get updated and stays on 1.pcm itself, displaying "duplicate file error". Kindly help in solving this issue. Thanks, Vijay

Vijay, At the beginning of the batch file, you need to have a line called- setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion and use rename "standard.pcm" !pcmFile! instead of rename "standard.pcm" %pcmFile% That would fix the problem you mentioned. Also, I see other minor issues like If %1=="" ( -will always fail the condition. Change it to If "%1"=="" ( later, -- Holla.

Holla, Thank you very much for your solution. Just changed this SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION in my batch file and incorporated all suggestions given by you. It is now working fine! Thanks, Vijay

Dear friends, There is one more problem! After making the above mentioned changes the batch file is working correctly when the path doesn't conatin any spaces. But if i give "C:\Program Files\My Folder\Input Name.txt" including the double quotes its neither throwing error nor generating the output. Kindly provide your valuable help. Thanks, Vijay

Dear friends, Kindly help me out on the above issue. Thanks, Vijay

Vijay, it gets confused when there are two times double quotes. the lines - set input=%1 if not exist "%input%" ( ends up generating two double-quotes when %1 has already double quoted. to rectify that, use "%~1" - wherever you are referring to %1 %~1 removes any quotes supplied by the user, if there are any. That will result in a consistant behaviour no matter wheter quotes are supplied or not. -- Holla.