How can find exact match with findstr in for of windows batch

Question

What the only thing I want to do is in a windows batch, to get output of a dir command with findstr.

If I knew this was the most complicated thing in life, I wouldn't try.

What I did is, first, write my command that I need its output:

dir /A D:\path | findstr mykeyword

But actually I need exact match of "keyword", so I found this:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/39235594/2536614

So, my command is now:

dir /A D:\path | findstr "\<mykeyword\>"

I have tried it and the output is what I want.

Then, how do I get its output in a batch file? Of course, the intuitive tries don't work. It must be complicated. So, I found this:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/10131068/2536614

A loop just to set a variable. Anyway, this brings another complication. Now I can not write "\<mykeyword\>" correctly, escaping the special characters, within, first ' then ", in For command, as the anwser suggests.

I have tried this:

For /F %%A in ('"dir /A %path_to_look% | findstr ""\\^<mykeyword\\^>"""') do set res1=%%A

This returns nothing. res1 is empty.

So, how can I find exact match with findstr, but within For command?

Answer 1

My solution has been using ^| instead of | only.

This makes it possible to use only ' instead of '" inside in().

So now I could write findstr "" without need of escaping " character, which was the only thing I was trying to find.

So,

before:

For /F %%A in ('"dir /A %path_to_look% | findstr ""\<mykeyword\>"""') do set res1=%%A

Supposedly " could be escaped as "" but this code did not work.

So,

after:

For /F %%A in ('dir /A %path_to_look% ^| findstr "\<mykeyword\>"') do set res1=%%A

This does work.

(Though, in other words "how can escape special characters when using findstr within in ('""') question remains as a mystery.)