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In batch files, variables containing multiple words or spaces must be placed in double quotes, but sometimes, we do not want to see these quotes in the output. These quotes can be removed from the variables in batch files.

There are many ways to remove double quotes from a variable. Some methods will cause problems with the CMD environment, which may cause errors in your batch file.

We will discuss all the methods and possibilities. This tutorial will discuss removing double quotes from variables in batch files.

Remove double quotes using tilde character in batch file

You can use the tilde ( ~) character to remove double quotes from a variable in a batch file. The tilde ( ~) character is used in a variety of ways in batch files.

In addition to removing argument quotes, it is also used to extract substrings from string variables in batch files. To remove quotes from a variable, use %~ before the command line argument from which you need to remove quotes.

It removes any surrounding quotes from the arguments.

set A=%~1
set parameters=%~2 %~3
%A% %parameters%

Here, %1you specify the first command line argument passed to the batch file, %2specify the second command line argument, etc. It only processes the arguments before %9.

However, this method only works for command arguments passed into a batch file, not for variables. Users often use this for variables, resulting in errors during batch file execution.

Remove all surrounding double quotes from a variable in a batch file

Another way to remove double quotes from a variable is by using %var:"=% in a batch file. This can be used to remove double quotes from any string or variable.

You can remove the quotes from either end, the outer quotes, or remove all of them at once. The basic syntax would be:

set variable=%variable:"=%

The following example shows how to remove all quotes from a variable in a batch file:

set var1="Hello World"
set var1
set var1=%var1:"=%
set var1
PAUSE

But if the variable has a &character, the above code will not work.

Apart from removing double quotes from the variable, you can also replace them with single quotes or any other character. You can also replace words in a variable using the above code.

Replace double quotes with single quotes in batch file

To replace double quotes with single quotes, add a single quote after the equal sign, as shown in the following example.

set var1="Hello World"
set var1
set var1=%var1:"='%
set var1
PAUSE

Replace word from variable in batch file

To replace a word in a variable in a batch file with any other word, modify the above code as shown in the following example:

set var1="Hello World"
set var1
set var1=%var1:World=Hannah%
set var1
PAUSE

Using FOR loop in batch file to remove double quotes

You can also remove double quotes using a for loop with variables in a batch file. Add the following line in your batch file as shown in the example below to remove any double quotes from the variable.

SET var1="Hello World"
ECHO %var1%
FOR /F "delims=" %%I IN (%var1%) DO SET new_var1=%%I
ECHO %new_var1%
PAUSE

You can also create a batch file with a single line of code with a FOR loop to remove the double quotes and save it as a .cmd file. Also, using the CALL command, you can directly use it in another batch file to remove the double quotes from a variable.

Hence, we have discussed how to remove double quotes from a variable in batch file using different methods. Also, limitations are mentioned at the end of each method.