Hello all! I was wondering if there's a way to parse text from text files in DOS without using the iterative nature of the FOR command. I have a delimited text file with over 72000 rows and all I would like to get from the file is the year (2005 or 2006 in a different file) which is the same all through out and is the first token in the file. I thought of using the skip option but the file that would be provided to us on a monthly basis will not have a set number of records (volatile). I would like to use the year as part of the name of the raw files we archive. I would appreciate any help you can give. Attached is the code I've written so far, which doesn't work :-( REM @echo off set varNUM=0 set ROOT=C:\Membership Reporting\2005 set FILE=memrpt2.txt FOR /f "tokens=2-4 delims=/ " %%a in ('DATE/T') do SET DATE=%%c_%%a_%%b for /f "usebackq tokens=1" %%a in ("%ROOT%\%FILE%") do call :PROC %%a goto :ENDPROC :PROC if not %varNUM%==1 ( set varYEAR=%1 set /a varNUM=%varNUM%+1 ) goto :EOF :ENDPROC @echo %varYEAR% @echo Filename is %DATE%_memrpt_%varYEAR%.txt

It may help to post a chunk of the orig filr; maybe five lines. And an example of what the output file[s] should look like. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

Hello M2, Thanks for your reply. If the file you're referring to is the raw delimited file, it looks something like this: 2005 *1 *9* Whatever * .... 2005 *1 *9* Whatever2 * .... 2005 *2 *3* Whatever2 * .... 2005 *2 *9* Whatever3 * .... The text file is delimited by a space and *. There can be up to more than 100K of lines at a time so obviously it wouldn't make sense to go over all the rows just to get 1 year value. All the year values should be the same for all records so going to the first line should be enough. Anyway, let me know if this is what you're referring to. Thanks again!

I'm sure M2 will not be offended by my tip, so the following two lines of code should fit your need to catch the first line's year Set /P varYEAR=<"your file name" Set varYEAR=%varYEAR:~0,4% Post again if anything goes wrong.

Thanks for your reply, IVO. That trick worked without a hitch! M2, please still do post if you find any other way of doing it; a different method can always be useful at a later time. Cheers you both!

Hi IVO, I tested this code several times, although there seems to be a problem the variable retaining it's value. Here's the full code I wrote. Sorry if this is clunky, DOS scripting hasn't been my greatest strength. set ORACLESID=MYORACLESERVER.ORG set MBRNFILE=mbrrptn.txt set MBRSFILE=mbrrpts.txt set MBRFILE=mbrrpt.txt set MBRCTL=mbrrpt.ctl set MBRBAD=mbrrpt.bad set MBRLOG=mbrrpt.log set MBRSQL=mbrrpt.sql set MBRTRSQL=mbrrpt_trunc.sql set MBRSQLLOG=mbrrpt_sql.log set ROOT=c:\jobs set SUBFOLDER=membership_rpt set LOGROOT=%ROOT%\LOG set RAWROOT=%ROOT%\RAW set BADROOT=%ROOT%\BAD set CTLROOT=%ROOT%\CTL set SQLROOT=%ROOT%\SQL rem -- date stamp the log FOR /f "tokens=2-4 delims=/ " %%a in ('DATE/T') do set DATE=%%c_%%a_%%b rem -- time stamp the log FOR /f "tokens=1-4 delims=:." %%a in ('TIME/T') do set TIME=%%a_%%b_%%c IF EXIST %RAWROOT%\%MBRNFILE% ( IF EXIST %RAWROOT%\%MBRSFILE% ( copy /b %RAWROOT%\%MBRNFILE%+%RAWROOT%\%MBRSFILE% %RAWROOT%\%MBRFILE% IF EXIST %RAWROOT%\%MBRFILE% ( set /p varYEAR=<"%RAWROOT%\%MBRFILE%" set varYEAR=%varYEAR:~0,4% sqlldr userid=bob/bob@%ORACLESID% control=%CTLROOT%\%MBRCTL% log=%LOGROOT%\%SUBFOLDER%\%MBRLOG% bad=%BADROOT%\%SUBFOLDER%\%DATE%_%MBRBAD% IF EXIST %BADROOT%\%SUBFOLDER%\%DATE%_%MBRBAD% ( @echo ************** Membership Reporting - %DATE% - %TIME% ************** >> %LOGROOT%\%SUBFOLDER%\%MBRSQLLOG% sqlplus -s /nolog @%SQLROOT%\%MBRTRSQL% >> %LOGROOT%\%SUBFOLDER%\%MBRSQLLOG% sqlplus -s /nolog @%SQLROOT%\%MBRFAILSQL% >> %LOGROOT%\%SUBFOLDER%\%MBRSQLLOG% @echo SQL Loader aborted due to constraint violation in membership file >> %LOGROOT%\%SUBFOLDER%\%MBRSQLLOG% @echo Upload process aborted ) else ( @echo ************** Membership Reporting - %DATE% - %TIME% ************** >> %LOGROOT%\%SUBFOLDER%\%MBRSQLLOG% sqlplus -s /nolog @%SQLROOT%\%MBRSQL% >> %LOGROOT%\%SUBFOLDER%\%MBRSQLLOG% REM IF EXIST %RAWROOT%\%MBRNFILE% ( REM del %RAWROOT%\%MBRNFILE%) REM IF EXIST %RAWROOT%\%MBRSFILE% ( REM del %RAWROOT%\%MBRSFILE%) IF EXIST %RAWROOT%\%MBRFILE% ( @echo %varYEAR% REM ren %RAWROOT%\%MBRFILE% %DATE%_%varYEAR%_%MBRFILE% REM move %RAWROOT%\%DATE%_%varYEAR%_%MBRFILE% %RAWROOT%\%SUBFOLDER% ) ) ) ) else ( echo Raw file/s non-existent 2 ) ) else ( echo Raw file/s non-existent 1 ) This is basically a proc that checks for raw files in the folders, merges the raw files, uploads to oracle using sql loader and executes a proc that transfers the data from the raw to the main table. Any help would be appreciated!

Just an update, for some reason IVO's code doesn't work inside an IF EXIST statement... :-(