Batch Write to Text File with <Angle Brackets>

Question

I am attempting to dynamically create a small XML file with a Batch Script, but am having issues writing lines that begin and end with angle brackets.

1) If I do something like:

set foo=^<bar^>
echo %foo% > test.txt

This results in

> was unexpected at this time.
echo <bar> > test.txt

2) If I surround the echo statment variable with quotes: echo "%foo%" > test.txt, it writes successfully to the text file. However it obviously includes the quotes which I can't have.

3) Then I thought "Well, it must just be the angle brackets at the beginning and end..." So I added a character before and after the angle brackets:

set foo=a^<bar^>a
echo %foo% > test.txt

This resulted in some weird output which looks like my brackets are being numbered, and then it's looking for a file?

echo a 0<bar 1>test.txt
The system cannot find the file specified.

I've written elementary batch scripts before, but feel like I'm in over my head here... Any help is appreciated!

Answer 1

Try this:

setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION

set foo=^<bar^>
echo !foo! > test.txt

endlocal

Using delayed expansion, and replacing the % with ! causes it to evaluate it differently.

Answer 2

If using a pipe you need:

set foo=^^^<bar^^^>