Windows batch script to read an .ini file

Question

I'm trying to read an .ini file with the following format:

[SectionName]
total=4
[AnotherSectionName]
total=7
[OtherSectionName]
total=12

Basically I want to print out certain values from the .ini file, for example the total under OtherSectionName followed by the total from AnotherSectionName.

Answer 1

Here's a command file (ini.cmd) you can use to extract the relevant values:

@setlocal enableextensions enabledelayedexpansion
@echo off
set file=%~1
set area=[%~2]
set key=%~3
set currarea=
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%a in ("!file!") do (
    set ln=%%a
    if "x!ln:~0,1!"=="x[" (
        set currarea=!ln!
    ) else (
        for /f "tokens=1,2 delims==" %%b in ("!ln!") do (
            set currkey=%%b
            set currval=%%c
            if "x!area!"=="x!currarea!" if "x!key!"=="x!currkey!" (
                echo !currval!
            )
        )
    )
)
endlocal

And here's a transcript showing it in action (I've manually indented the output to make it easier to read):

c:src>type ini.ini
    [SectionName]
    total=4
    [AnotherSectionName]
    total=7
    [OtherSectionName]
    total=12
c:src>ini.cmd ini.ini SectionName total
    4
c:src>ini.cmd ini.ini AnotherSectionName total
    7
c:src>ini.cmd ini.ini OtherSectionName total
    12

To actually use this in another cmd file, just replace the echo %val% line below with whatever you want to do with it):

for /f "delims=" %%a in ('call ini.cmd ini.ini AnotherSectionName total') do (
    set val=%%a
)
echo %val%