How to get folder path from file path with CMD

The accepted answer is helpful, but it isn't immediately obvious how to retrieve a filename from a path if you are NOT using passed in values. I was able to work this out from this thread, but in case others aren't so lucky, here is how it is done:

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion enableextensions

set myPath=C:\Somewhere\Somewhere\SomeFile.txt
call :file_name_from_path result !myPath!
echo %result%
goto :eof

:file_name_from_path <resultVar> <pathVar>
(
    set "%~1=%~nx2"
    exit /b
)

:eof
endlocal

Now the :file_name_from_path function can be used anywhere to retrieve the value, not just for passed in arguments. This can be extremely helpful if the arguments can be passed into the file in an indeterminate order or the path isn't passed into the file at all.


For the folder name and drive, you can use:

echo %~dp0

You can get a lot more information using different modifiers:

%~I         - expands %I removing any surrounding quotes (")
%~fI        - expands %I to a fully qualified path name
%~dI        - expands %I to a drive letter only
%~pI        - expands %I to a path only
%~nI        - expands %I to a file name only
%~xI        - expands %I to a file extension only
%~sI        - expanded path contains short names only
%~aI        - expands %I to file attributes of file
%~tI        - expands %I to date/time of file
%~zI        - expands %I to size of file

The modifiers can be combined to get compound results:
%~dpI       - expands %I to a drive letter and path only
%~nxI       - expands %I to a file name and extension only
%~fsI       - expands %I to a full path name with short names only

This is a copy paste from the "for /?" command on the prompt. Hope it helps.

Related

Top 10 DOS Batch tips (Yes, DOS Batch...) shows batchparams.bat (link to source as a gist):

C:\Temp>batchparams.bat c:\windows\notepad.exe
%~1     =      c:\windows\notepad.exe
%~f1     =      c:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE
%~d1     =      c:
%~p1     =      \WINDOWS\
%~n1     =      NOTEPAD
%~x1     =      .EXE
%~s1     =      c:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE
%~a1     =      --a------
%~t1     =      08/25/2005 01:50 AM
%~z1     =      17920
%~$PATHATH:1     =
%~dp1     =      c:\WINDOWS\
%~nx1     =      NOTEPAD.EXE
%~dp$PATH:1     =      c:\WINDOWS\
%~ftza1     =      --a------ 08/25/2005 01:50 AM 17920 c:\WINDOWS\NOTEPAD.EXE

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