Help With Batch File

pseymour said:

Right, because you're doing set "newest= Folder3", you're never putting the full path in. So when your batch script gets to
echo The most recently modified file is: %newest% (%newestDate%), %newest% does not have a full path in it.

Click to expand...

Here is my full code that compares the 3 files to see which has the most current date.
@echo off
setlocal

:: Set file paths
set "file1=C:\DataBaseFolder\D_Johnsons_DB_01.04.23.accdb"
set "file2=C:\Users\David.Johnson\OneDrive - Technologies\Work\DataBaseFolder\D_Johnsons_DB_01.04.23.accdb"
set "file3=C:\Users\David.Johnson\OneDrive - Technologies\Work\DataBaseFolder\Laptop Backup Folder\D_Johnsons_DB_01.04.23.accdb"

:: Get timestamps
for %%F in ("%file1%") do set "date1=%%~tF"
for %%F in ("%file2%") do set "date2=%%~tF"
for %%F in ("%file3%") do set "date3=%%~tF"

:: Display timestamps
echo File 1: %file1% - %date1%
echo File 2: %file2% - %date2%
echo File 3: %file3% - %date3%

:: Compare dates
set "newest= in the C:\DataBaseFolder\ folder on"
set "newestDate=%date1%"

if "%date2%" GTR "%newestDate%" (
set "newest=in the C:\Users\David.Allan.Johnson\OneDrive - RedSail Technologies, LLC\Work\DataBaseFolder\ folder on"
set "newestDate=%date2%"
)

if "%date3%" GTR "%newestDate%" (
set "newest=in the C:\Users\David.Allan.Johnson\OneDrive - RedSail Technologies, LLC\Work\DataBaseFolder\Laptop Backup Folder\ folder on"
set "newestDate=%date3%"
)

echo.
echo The most recently modified file is: %newest% (%newestDate%)

endlocal
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe %newest% (%newestDate%)

pause

This is never going to work. Let's say folder 3 is the winner, you're setting newest to "in the C:\Users\David.Allan.Johnson\OneDrive - RedSail Technologies, LLC\Work\DataBaseFolder\Laptop Backup Folder\ folder on" and expecting Explorer to open that folder.

You need to set %newest% to just the path of the folder, and take that %newestDate% thing off the call to Explorer.

garlin said:

A common debug trick is to echo the line you're expecting to execute:

Code:

echo %SystemRoot%\explorer.exe %newest%
%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe %newest%

This prints out the calling arguments, so you can confirm you didn't mess up for example, the path to explorer.exe, or the passed on argument(s).

Click to expand...

When I run the batch file, it just comes up with the Explorer Home and not the path that the file is located in.

Crazy Dave said:

When I run the batch file, it just comes up with the Explorer Home and not the path that the file is located in.

Click to expand...

Right, because you're passing it something that doesn't exist.

Here's the PowerShell equivalent, much easier to understand.... Get these three specific files.... Sort them by their last write (modified) time... Pick the last one... Start explorer and give it the name of that file's directory.

AndreyT said:

True. But they are still unnecessary in a set command specifically even of you have a path with spaces.

Click to expand...

That depends. The characters <, >, |, &, and ^ are special command shell characters, and they must be preceded by the escape character (^) or enclosed in quotation marks when used in <string> (for example, "StringContaining&Symbol"). In a folderpath, the characters <, >, and | are not allowed, but & and ^ most certainly are.

If you use quotation marks to enclose a string that contains one of the special characters, the quotation marks are set as part of the environment variable value but you can avoid this if that's what you want, i.e., by moving the first quotation mark directly in front of the variable name like @pseymour has shown (see post #4).

In short, if you want to avoid having to rely on the escape character and you want to avoid all the excruciating pains that are commonly associated with it, then quotes are very much necessary. That is, unless you can be completely sure that the folderpath does not contain any of the special characters that need to be escaped.

AndreyT said:

The entire portion of the input string that follows the = character is taken as a new value for the variable, spaces and everything, regardless of whether it is enclosed in quotes.

In this example the quotes are placed in a rather nonsensical fashion, but it still "works" in a set command simply because they don't really affect anything.

In fact one can do set x y = v w (no quotes) and that will produce variable x y (yes, with a space at the end) with value v w (yes, with a space in front).

Click to expand...

Thanks for your help everyone. Adding the "" around the full path fixed it. Works great now.