how to read registry string value from batch file

Question

Hello

I want to read registry string value, from bat file, and then assing the readed value to variable. I tried the following :

FOR  %%a in ('REG QUERY HKLM\SOFTWARE\MathWorks\MATLAB\7.10 /v MATLABROOT') DO set MATLAB=%%a
echo %MATLAB% 

but it doesn't work.

Answer 1

reg prints out way more than just the very value you're interested in. As far as I can see, giving the skip=2 and tokens=3 option to for might work.

Might need to get a little more elaborate than that, though, if there are more spaces than anticipated.

Answer 2

If the name of the value (baz in this case) does not contain spaces you can do something like

FOR /F "skip=4 tokens=2,*" %%A IN ('REG.exe query "HKLM\software\foo\bar" /v "baz"') DO set "MATLABROOT=%%B"

If the name is dynamic and only known at run time, you would have to use tokens=* and parse %%A looking for "REG_" so you know where the data starts...