How to compare a text file with a string in a batch script

Question

I'm trying to see if there is a string that exists in a particular text file that I have. I already referred to this post but I'm having different issues.

I'm running this as a batch file in powershell with ./test.bat.

if [ "$(< C:/Temp/test.txt)" =~ "test" ]; then echo "true"

This returns "$(C:/Temp/test.txt)" was unexpected at this time.

I also tried

if grep -` "test" "$C:/Temp/test.txt"; then echo "True"

This returns -q was unexpected at this time.

What am I doing wrong?

You're using the syntax of POSIX-compatible shells, such as Bash. Batch files have very different syntax. — mklement0
– mklement0, Commented Oct 12, 2023 at 15:24
findstr test c:\temp\test.txt >NUL && echo True is roughly the batch-file equivalent. — mklement0
– mklement0, Commented Oct 12, 2023 at 15:27
Or, less roughly, for the case insensitive substring: @"%SystemRoot%\System32\find.exe" /I "test" 0<"C:\Temp\test.txt" 1>NUL 2>&1 && (Echo True) || Echo False, or for the case insensitive word: @"%SystemRoot%\System32\findstr.exe" /I /M /R "\<test\>" "C:\Temp\test.txt" 1>NUL 2>&1 && (Echo True) || Echo False. — Compo
– Compo, Commented Oct 12, 2023 at 16:07
@mklement0 is there an "else" equivalent? What if I want to throw an error or stop the batch file if the condition is not true? — Sarah
– Sarah, Commented Oct 12, 2023 at 16:14
@Sarah, you can then use the or conditional statement which is || as per example.findstr test "c:\temp\test.txt" >NUL && echo True || echo False or in the example where you also then want to exit. findstr test "c:\temp\test.txt" >NUL && echo True || (echo False & exit /b 1) — user7818749
– user7818749, Commented Oct 12, 2023 at 17:04

Ashok · Accepted Answer · 2023-10-13 10:18:08Z

-1

To check if there's a string there in a specific file or not you can use grep command.

grep -i -o "<your_string>" <your_file_name>

answered Oct 13, 2023 at 10:18

Ashok

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