string comparison in batch file

How do we compare strings which got space and special chars in batch file?

I am trying:

if %DevEnvDir% == "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\"( echo VS2010 ) 

But it gives an error "Files was unexpected at this time."

I tried:

if "%DevEnvDir%" == "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\"( echo VS2010 ) 

But it gives an error "The syntax of the command is incorrect."

Any ideas?

3 Answers

Just put quotes around the Environment variable (as you have done) :
if "%DevEnvDir%" == "C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\"
but it's the way you put opening bracket without a space that is confusing it.

Works for me...

C:\if "%gtk_basepath%" == "C:\Program Files\GtkSharp\2.12\" (echo yes) yes 

While @ajv-jsy's answer works most of the time, I had the same problem as @MarioVilas. If one of the strings to be compared contains a double quote ("), the variable expansion throws an error.

Example:

@echo off SetLocal set Lhs=" set Rhs=" if "%Lhs%" == "%Rhs%" echo Equal 

Error:

echo was unexpected at this time. 

Solution:

Enable delayed expansion and use ! instead of %.

@echo off SetLocal EnableDelayedExpansion set Lhs=" set Rhs=" if !Lhs! == !Rhs! echo Equal :: Surrounding with double quotes also works but appears (is?) unnecessary. if "!Lhs!" == "!Rhs!" echo Equal 

I have not been able to break it so far using this technique. It works with empty strings and all the symbols I threw at it.

Test:

@echo off SetLocal EnableDelayedExpansion :: Test empty string set Lhs= set Rhs= echo Lhs: !Lhs! & echo Rhs: !Rhs! if !Lhs! == !Rhs! (echo Equal) else (echo Not Equal) echo. :: Test symbols set Lhs= \ / : * ? " ' < > | %% ^^ ` ~ @ # $ [ ] & ( ) + - _ = set Rhs= \ / : * ? " ' < > | %% ^^ ` ~ @ # $ [ ] & ( ) + - _ = echo Lhs: !Lhs! & echo Rhs: !Rhs! if !Lhs! == !Rhs! (echo Equal) else (echo Not Equal) echo. 

The solution is DO NOT USE SPACES!

IF "%DevEnvDir%"=="C:\" (