Windows batch powershell command inside FOR loop not working

Question

I have the following for loop inside batch file:

for /l %%x in (1, 1, %k%) do (

    set "psCommand=powershell -Command "$pword = read-host 'Enter Password2' -AsSecureString ; $BSTR=[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($pword) ; [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR)""
    for /f "usebackq delims=" %%p in (`%psCommand%`) do set password=%%p

)

And I always get the following error: [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR)"" was unexpected at this time.

When I run the command outside the for loop, it works.

What is wrong?

Answer 1

The issue is that the for loop thinks that the end bracket is inside the powershell command.

The possible solution is to create a function and call it from the loop:

for /l %%x in (1, 1, %k%) do (
    call :getPassword password
)

:getPassword
set "psCommand=powershell -Command "$pword = read-host 'Enter Password' -AsSecureString ; ^
    $BSTR=[System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::SecureStringToBSTR($pword); ^
        [System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal]::PtrToStringAuto($BSTR)""
for /f "usebackq delims=" %%p in (`%psCommand%`) do set password=%%p
EXIT /B 0