Batch: Escape Characters

All DOS versions interpret some special characters before executing a command.

Example of Special Characters

%, <, |, >

How to Escape %sign?

Use %% to escape % sign.

Hello.bat

@echo off

set name=Krishna Gurram

echo Printing Actual Name %name
echo Printing the variable name by escaping %%name

When you ran Hello.bat, you can see below messages in console.

C:\Users\Public>Hello
Printing Actual Name name
Printing the variable name by escaping %name

Escaping redirection symbol >

In Windows 95/98 and NT, and OS/2, you can escape redirection symbols by placing them in double quotes.

In Windows NT and OS/2, you can escape special characters by prefixing ^ (carets).

For example,

Hello.bat

@echo off

echo Hello > World

When you ran Hello.bat, you can see nothing in console.

Below program prints redirection symbol by escaping it by placing it in ", using ^ symbol. 

Hello.bat

@echo off

echo Hello ">" World
echo Hello ^> World

When you ran Hello.bat, you can see below messages in console.

C:\Users\Public>Hello

Hello ">" World

Hello > World

Reference

http://www.robvanderwoude.com/escapechars.php

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