Batch WMIC redirecting output and wrapping into variable

Question

I'm trying to use WMIC to remove some old printers on our older print servers

if I use the below syntax from the command line it works

WMIC PRINTER WHERE "SERVERNAME LIKE '%%OLDSERVERNAME%%'" DELETE

I was asked to see if I could make it replace the printers or update them to spare the helpdesk from getting "how do I add my printer" calls

I tried some variation with SET to set the properties for SERVERNAME, it appear to process, but nothing changes and doing a GET shows the old value still.

so I figured I could do a FOR /F loop, wrap the name of the printer (sharename) in a variable and then use another command to recreate the printers, after the offending printers have been deleted.

here's my script

@ECHO

ECHO Gathering Installed Printer Information...

FOR /F "tokens=1 skip=1" %%A IN ('WMIC PRINTER WHERE "Servername like "%%printaz1%%"" get sharename') DO SET PRINTERNAME=%%A

ECHO %PRINTERNAME%

so you would think you'd get the value all wrapped up in a nice variable to do with as you wish but no, I turned echo on and it appears that the variable gets set back to null as soon as it's captured

my output looks like this...

FOR /F "tokens=1 skip=1" %%A IN ('WMIC PRINTER WHERE "Servername like "%%printaz1%%"" get sharename') DO SET PRINTERNAME=%%A

SET PRINTERNAME=nameofprinter

SET PRINTERNAME=

ECHO

ECHO is on.

would love some thoughts on why it seems to be dumping the string.

Powershell and VBScript aren't out of the option either, I'm familar with both, just this seemed possible, and I really don't want to start over.

Answer 1

WMIC is returning two lines, one with the printername, and one empty.
The solution to this is to test for empty lines.

ECHO Gathering Installed Printer Information...
FOR /F "tokens=1 skip=1" %%A IN ('WMIC PRINTER WHERE "Servername like "%%printaz1%%"" get sharename') DO if not "%%A"=="" SET PRINTERNAME=%%A
ECHO %PRINTERNAME%