Escape percent in bat file

Question

I was trying to write a VPN dialer/disconnector using a batch file, but I got stuck. After some investigation I found that the presence of % in the password is not playing well.

Here is the code

@echo OFF SET SWITCHPARSE1=%1 SET SWITCHPARSE2=%2 REM echo %SWITCHPARSE1% SHIFT SHIFT IF "SWITCHPARSE1" == "" goto Usage IF "SWITCHPARSE1" == "/?" goto Usage IF "SWITCHPARSE2" == "" goto Usage IF "SWITCHPARSE2" == "/?" goto Usage   IF "%SWITCHPARSE1%" == "sl" (     IF "%SWITCHPARSE2%" == "conn" (         echo "inside sl conn"         rasdial sl employee1 K%%Pxev3=)g:{#Swc9         goto end     ) ELSE IF "%SWITCHPARSE2%" == "disconn" (         rasdial sl /disconnect         goto end     ) ELSE (         goto Usage     ) ) ELSE IF "%SWITCHPARSE1%" == "off" (         IF "%SWITCHPARSE2%" == "conn" (         rasdial Office employee1 office123         goto end     ) ELSE IF "%SWITCHPARSE2%" == "disconn" (         rasdial Office /disconnect         goto end     ) ELSE (         goto Usage     ) ) ELSE (     goto Usage )  :Usage echo "Usage is vpnconn.bat /[sl|off] /[conn|disconn]"  :end 

In the above script I am trying to escape % using % (i.e. %%, reference from here), but the bat script gives g:{#Swc9 was unexpected at this time..

To root cause further, I tried to double %% (escape %) in a different batch file, and it worked:

@echo OFF rasdial sl employee1 K%%Pxev3=)g:{#Swc9 

Why does the same script when integrated to work with different connections not work?

Answer 1

Two %% equals to one %. That's right (but only in a script, not directly in the cmd), no need to use the escape operator ^.

But you are missing the agrupation operator ). That's the problem; the IF closes when it finds the ) at your command.

Use this:

rasdial sl employee1 K%%%%Pxev3=^)g:{#Swc9