Windows – Escape ampersands in variables – win batch

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I have a variable that contains ampersands and I need to create another variable that contains the first one. I know the "&" character can be escaped with carret (^) but I have no idea how to escape the text inside a variable.

set Name1 = Red ^& Green
set Name2 = %Name1% ^& Blue

'Green' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

I can't even "echo" the variables containing ampersands – I get the same error.

I need to use the variables in order to type their contents to the output or to manipulate files named by the variables like

type "%Name1%.txt"
type "%Name2%.txt"

Best Answer

The simplest solution is to use quotes for the assignment, and delayed expansion. This eliminates any need for escaping.

@echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set "Name1=Red & Green"
set "Name2=!Name1! & Blue"
echo !Name2!

If you have a mixture of quoted and unquoted text, you sometimes must escape some characters. But that is only needed for the initial assignment. The content of a variable never needs to be escaped when using delayed expansion.

@echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion
set var="This & that" ^& the other thing.
echo !var!
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