What does percent sign with tilde syntax(%~a) mean in command line [closed]

Question

for %a in (*.txt) do ren "%~a" "%~na version 1%~xa"

This command line script can rename files in a directory by adding text ( version 1) to the end of filenames.

I'm wondering what do %a, %~a, %~na, %~xa syntax mean? Where can I find an introduction to these online? Could you give me an online link to documentation?

Answer 1

Try checking the documentation for the for command: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490909.aspx

%~a means expand without quotes, %~na means filename only, %~xa means file extension only.

So "%~a" is the full name with quotes always around it, then the target is the existing name with "version 1" inserted between the name and the extension.