windows - How do I get the equivalent of dirname() in a batch file?

Question

I'd like to get the parent directory of a file from within a .bat file. So, given a variable set to "C:MyDirMyFile.txt", I'd like to get "C:MyDir". In other words, the equivalent of dirname() functionality in a typical UNIX environment. Is this possible?

Answer 1

for %%F in (%filename%) do set dirname=%%~dpF

This will set %dirname% to the drive and directory of the file name stored in %filename%.

Careful with filenames containing spaces, though. Either they have to be set with surrounding quotes:

set filename="C:MyDirMyFile with space.txt"

or you have to put the quotes around the argument in the for loop:

for %%F in ("%filename%") do set dirname=%%~dpF

Either method will work, both at the same time won't :-)