Different File Modifiers in Windows Batch Scripting

File Modifiers are used with replacement parameter in FOR loop. They begin with ~ tilde sign which is followed by replacement parameter(also called loop variable) which can be of 1 letter.

You can run following examples individually to learn about file modifiers.

SYNTAX: %%Tilde Then Single Letter File Modifier Then Single Letter Loop Variable

Note that you can combine file modifiers also.

Example

@echo off

REM List filename of each batch file, file modifier is not used here

FOR %%f in (*.bat) DO echo %%f

pause

Example

@echo off

REM List filename without extension of each batch file, ~n for filename

FOR %%f in (*.bat) DO echo %%~nf

pause

Example

@echo off

REM List file extension of each file, ~x for file extension

FOR %%f in (*) DO echo %%~xf

pause

Example

@echo off

REM List file name with extension of each file, ~nx for file name and extension

FOR %%f in (*.bat) DO echo %%~nxf

pause

Example

@echo off

REM List full path of each file, ~f for fully qualified path including filename

FOR %%f in (*.bat) DO echo %%~ff

pause

Example

@echo off

REM List full path of each file, ~f for fully qualified path excluding filename

FOR %%f in (*.bat) DO echo %%~pf

pause

Example: This example shows the usage in one script.

@echo off

SET "tab= "

ECHO Get list of files 

for %%i in (*) do (

 echo %tab% %%i

)

ECHO Get list of files with fullpath

for %%i in (*) do (

 echo %tab% %%~fi

)

ECHO Get list of files with name only

@echo off

for %%i in (*) do (

 echo %tab% %%~ni

)

ECHO Get list of files with extension only

@echo off

for %%i in (*) do (

 echo %tab% %%~xi

)

ECHO Get list of files with name and extension only

@echo off

for %%i in (*) do (

 echo %tab% %%~nxi

)

ECHO Get list of files with path

@echo off

for %%i in (*) do (

 echo %tab% %%~pi

)

pause

The output of this script is as follows:

Get list of files

         file.txt

         file2.txt

         file_info.bat

Get list of files with fullpath

         D:\BAT Examples\New folder\file.txt

         D:\BAT Examples\New folder\file2.txt

         D:\BAT Examples\New folder\file_info.bat

Get list of files with name only

         file

         file2

         file_info

Get list of files with extension only

         .txt

         .txt

         .bat

Get list of files with name and extension only

         file.txt

         file2.txt

         file_info.bat

Get list of files with path

         \BAT Examples\New folder\

         \BAT Examples\New folder\

         \BAT Examples\New folder\

Press any key to continue . . .

Tips: To get the complete list of file modifier, run the command FOR/?

Here is some list:

%~I	expands %I removing any surrounding quotes (")
%~fI	expands %I to a fully qualified path name
%~dI	expands %I to a drive letter only
%~pI	expands %I to a path only
%~nI	expands %I to a file name only
%~xI	expands %I to a file extension only
%~sI	expanded path contains short names only
%~aI	expands %I to file attributes of file
%~tI	expands %I to date/time of file
%~zI	expands %I to size of file