Windows batch assign output of a program to a variable

Question

I need to assign the output of a program to a variable using a MS batch file.

So in GNU Bash shell I would use VAR=$(application arg0 arg1). I need a similar behavior in Windows using a batch file.

Something like set VAR=application arg0 arg1.

Thanks!

Answer 1

assuming that your application's output is a numeric return code, you can do the following

application arg0 arg1
set VAR=%errorlevel%

Answer 2

This article describes two solutions. Unfortunately, the solutions not quite as straightforward as bash.

Answer 3

@OP, you can use for loops to capture the return status of your program, if it outputs something other than numbers

Answer 4

One way is:

application arg0 arg1 > temp.txt
set /p VAR=<temp.txt

Another is:

for /f %%i in ('application arg0 arg1') do set VAR=%%i