windows - Passing around multi-line strings

Question

I'm trying to create a batch file which passes around a string with line feeds in it but its not working out. The continuation of the string is executed as a new command.

Is there anyway to encode a line feed or make this work?

Answer 1

You can create directly multiline strings with the caret (one empty line is required).

setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set multiLine=This is a ^

multiline text^

line3
echo !multiLine!

Or you can create first a newline character.

setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion
set LF=^


rem Two empty lines are required
set multiLine=This is a!LF!multiline text!LF!line3
echo !multiLine!

An explanation how this works can be found at Explain how dos-batch newline variable hack works