DOS BAT file equivalent to Unix basename command?

Question

Is there an easy way to get to the basename (file name without extension) of a DOS file name using the DOS BAT command language?

I agree: format c:\\ is

Answer 1

To expand on hobodave's and ars's answers, here's the relevant snippet of help from the for command:

In addition, substitution of FOR variable references has been enhanced.
You can now use the following optional syntax:

    %~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
    %~$PATH:I   - searches the directories listed in the PATH
                   environment variable and expands %I to the
                   fully qualified name of the first one found.
                   If the environment variable name is not
                   defined or the file is not found by the
                   search, then this modifier expands to the
                   empty string

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
    %~dp$PATH:I - searches the directories listed in the PATH
                   environment variable for %I and expands to the
                   drive letter and path of the first one found.
    %~ftzaI     - expands %I to a DIR like output line

In the above examples %I and PATH can be replaced by other valid
values.  The %~ syntax is terminated by a valid FOR variable name.
Picking upper case variable names like %I makes it more readable and
avoids confusion with the modifiers, which are not case sensitive.

Answer 2

Full-working solution (even when path contains spaces)

in .bat files

for /F "delims=" %%i in (%FILE_path%) do @echo "%%~ni"

in command-prompt use % instead of %%

(thanks to @Ciantic)

Answer 3

Also, the MKS Toolkit has a basename util...

http://www.mkssoftware.com/docs/man1/basename.1.asp

Answer 4

In the FOR loop command, you can use %%~n.

Answer 5

Based on the accepted answer from hobodave here is how you can use the command to set a variable in a batch file:

for /F %%i in ("%1") do @set FN=%%~nxi

It uses the first command line argument %1, and sets the variable FN equal to the basename (file.txt for example).

Answer 6

For command-line

for /F %i in ("c:\foo\bar.txt") do @echo %~ni

For .bat Files

for /F %%i in ("c:\foo\bar.txt") do @echo %%~ni

output: bar

p.s. if path contains space, use @ciantic's version.

(Further Reading: http://www.computerhope.com/forhlp.htm )