I wonder why this code does not work as expected:
@ECHO off
SET S1=HELLO
SETLOCAL EnableDelayedExpansion
SET S2=!S1! WORLD^^!
ECHO !S2!
ENDLOCAL & SET S1=!S2!
ECHO %S1%
PAUSE
Output:
HELLO WORLD!
!S2!
Expected output:
HELLO WORLD!
HELLO WORLD!
Thanks.
It works as expected.
The delayed expansion will expand variables at execution time, not parse time, so it interpret your line ENDLOCAL & SET S1=!S2!
as
endlocal
But at the part of SET S1=!S2!
the delayed expansion is off so it can't be expanded anymore.
In your case you could use
ENDLOCAL & SET S1=%S2%
As the exclamation mark is S2 is "safe", as the delayed exp. is off at the moment of execution.
But an always secure returning is a bit more complicated.
We discussed it at Dostips: Return ANY string across ENDLOCAL boundry