How can I stop percentage expansion in a batch file?

(This is on NT based Windows like 2000, XP, Vista, 7)

On the command-line, the percentage characters are ignored:

wget "http://www.justitie.nl/images/Handleiding%20voor%20verwerkers%20persoonsgegevens_tcm34-3940.pdf"

So it correctly downloads this file (each %20 becomes a space):

"http://www.justitie.nl/images/Handleiding voor verwerkers persoonsgegevens_tcm34-3940.pdf"

But inside a batchfile, all the %20 are being interpreted as expanding parameter 2 (which is empty) resulting in this file to get downloaded (each %20 becomes 0):

"http://www.justitie.nl/images/Handleiding0voor0verwerkers0persoonsgegevens_tcm34-3940.pdf"

Is there a way to circumvent the percentage parameter expansion?

--jeroen

Solution 1:

Double the percent sign:

wget "http://www.justitie.nl/images/Handleiding%%20voor%%20verwerkers%%20persoonsgegevens_tcm34-3940.pdf"

Solution 2:

% is used for variables in Windows' cmd.exe (and its predecessor command.com).

The escape character in cmd.exe is ^:

> echo foo^%bar
foo%bar