Batch removing spaces deletes everything

[Guest]

I have the following code:

@echo off
echo line=p o t a t o
set line=%line: =%
echo line=%line%

But when I run it, it displays the changed variable as blank. This also happens if I make the replacement for spaces any string such as:

@echo off
echo line=p o t a t o
set line=%line: =a%
echo line=%line%

Why does this happen? And how do I fix it? All I need to do is remove all the spaces.

Removing the "line=" bit makes it even worse. Normally when echo is off and I type "echo xyz", what will appear is "xyz", but now it just says echo is off (I am confused as hell right now).

[PlutoNZL]

You're never setting line equal to "p o t a t o". You're just printing "line=p o t a t o".

[Guest]

5 minutes ago, PlutoNZL said:

You're never setting line equal to "p o t a t o". You're just printing "line=p o t a t o".

Yep I did realise that. Now I have something like this (the actual code I'm working with):

@echo off
:start
cd %~dp0
for /f "tokens=*" %%G in (file.txt) do (
	set in=%%G
	set in=%in: =%
	echo %in%
)
pause

What is interesting is that if I look at the output with echo on, both the space removing command and the echo command don't behave as they should. The set command just sets %in% to be " =", then the echo does literally nothing. If I move them outside the parentheses, suddenly they both work, but only on the last line as that is what %in% is set to be last. These commands seem to be behaving differently whether they are inside or outside the loop, which is really confusing me.

[PlutoNZL]

15 minutes ago, OTheB said:

Yep I did realise that. Now I have something like this (the actual code I'm working with):

@echo off
:start
cd %~dp0
for /f "tokens=*" %%G in (file.txt) do (
	set in=%%G
	set in=%in: =%
	echo %in%
)
pause

What is interesting is that if I look at the output with echo on, both the space removing command and the echo command don't behave as they should. The set command just sets %in% to be " =", then the echo does literally nothing. If I move them outside the parentheses, suddenly they both work, but only on the last line as that is what %in% is set to be last. These commands seem to be behaving differently whether they are inside or outside the loop, which is really confusing me.

Check this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/13805187/how-to-set-a-variable-inside-a-loop-for-f

 

SETLOCAL ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

@echo on
:start
cd %~dp0
for /f "tokens=*" %%G in (file.txt) do (
	set in=%%G
	set in=!in: =!
	echo !in!
)
pause