Some useful batch scripts

Working with scripts is always fun. You can do so much stuffs with so less commands, and if you are dealing with doing some kind of operation on files / directories, sending remote commands, and even running sql scripts, scripts are the way to go.

In this post, I’ve tried to compile some scripts that I’ve used time and time again. Hopefully, this will help others.

• Calculating current datetime.
  The output of this script would be in format MMDDYYYY_HHSS
  
  set hhmm=%Time:~0,2%%Time:~3,2%
  if "%hhmm:~0,1%"==" " set hhmm=0%hhmm:~1,3%
  set DATETIME=%Date:~4,2%%Date:~7,2%%Date:~10,4%_%hhmm%
  echo %DATETIME%
  
  
• Creating a txt file with current datetime suffix.
  
  set FILENAME=Test_%DATETIME%.txt
  echo %FILENAME%>%FILENAME%
  
  
• Creating a ftp script on the fly, executing it and deleting it.
  
  echo open FTP_IP>FtpScript.txt
  echo FTP_USER>>FtpScript.txt
  echo FTP_PASS>>FtpScript.txt
  echo pwd>>FtpScript.txt
  echo put FILENAME>>FtpScript.txt
  echo bye>>FtpScript.txt
  
  REM Execute the ftp script
  ftp -s:FtpScript.txt
  
  REM Delete the ftp script
  del FtpScript.txt
  
  
• Splitting file contents with a “space” delimiter.
  
  for /f "tokens=* delims= " %%1 in (myFile.txt) do (
  echo contents: %%1
  echo.
  )
  
  
• Splitting file contents by a delimiter, and finding word at a exact location.
  
  Assuming the contents of file is: My name is Sudhir Chhetri, to find the "Sudhir" (location 4), the script would look like:
  
  for /f "tokens=1-4* delims= " %%1 in (output.txt) do (
  echo firstname=%%4
  )
  
  
• Check if a variable is null or empty string.
  
  Assuming my variable name is AAA, the script would look like:
  if "%AAA%null"=="null" (
  REM do something
  )
  
  
• Check to see if file exists
  
  if exist "C:\temp.txt" echo temp.txt exists
  
  
• Checking number of arguments.
  
  if "%4"=="" echo fourth param missing
  
  
• Finding last modified file in a directory
  
  set Location=C:\myLocation
  for /f "delims=" %%x in ('dir %Location% /od /b') do set recent=%%x
  
  where /od tells to order by date and /b tells to give just filename
  
  
• Running a sql file
  
  osql -S DBSERVER -d DBNAME -n -i SQLFILE –E
  
  
• Executing commands in remote machine
  
  psexec SERVERNAME –u USERNAME –p PASSWORD cmd /c “COMMANDS”
  
  Psexec.exe is a part of Sysinternals Process Utilities provided by Microsoft. More info about psexec.exe can be found at http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897553