bat script problem with "tokens"

[Kevin]

We use a .bat file script to compile from clearcase and
zip up our software everynight. The first thing the
script does is use the DATE commadn to construct a date
tag for the build:

set MYDATE=%DATE%

set MON_NUM=%MYDATE:~4,2%
set DAY_NUM=%MYDATE:~7,2%
set YEAR=%MYDATE:~10,4%

for /f "tokens=%MON_NUM%" %%a in (
"JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC") do
set MON_NAME=%%a

set t=DEV_%YEAR%%MON_NAME%%DAY_NUM%


Just recently we found the builds being named WITHOUT the
month in them. After some investigation I determined that
the "for" line was failing when the MON_NUM was either 08
or 09... it works for every other one though.

I put in this hack:

IF "%MON_NUM%"=="08" SET MON_NUM=8
IF "%MON_NUM%"=="09" SET MON_NUM=9

which works around the problem. Apparently, it has no
problem with just 8 and 9 only with 08 and 09.

I was hoping to gain some insight into this strange
quirk... any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

[John Phillips]

I'm pretty sure it's because the 'for' command is interpreting the 08 or 09
as base 8 (octal). As for the other months, it doesn't matter, since it's
either obvious (10, 11, 12) or it makes no difference (01-07). This
conforms to (at least) the rules for numbers in C/C++.

You're going to have to strip off the leading 0 somehow...

 

[Kevin]

I thought it might be somethign like that but I don't
understand on that basis why 08 doesn't work but 8 does?
What causes the 08 to be interpreted as octal and not 8..
or 18 for that matter (which I also played with).

 

[John Phillips]

As I said before, that's the C++ standard...if you want something to be
interpreted as:

- octal, then prefix the value with 0
- hexadecimal, then prefix the value with 0x

Everything else is decimal.