choose the column from a cmd command - command-line

Question

is there a way to choose the columns from windows cmd command?
for example:
when i use the following command:
tasklist
i get this result:
Image Name PID Session Name Session# Mem Usage
System Idle Process 0 Services 0 12 K
System 4 Services 0 920 K
smss.exe 260 Services 0 764 K
csrss.exe 360 Services 0 3,360 K
wininit.exe 412 Services 0 4,428 K
csrss.exe 424 Console 1 10,316 K
services.exe 476 Services 0 9,116 K
winlogon.exe 500 Console 1 5,456 K
lsass.exe 512 Services 0 10,300 K
lsm.exe 540 Services 0 2,960 K
svchost.exe 648 Services 0 8,212 K
svchost.exe 724 Services 0 8,048 K
svchost.exe 796 Services 0 14,740 K
svchost.exe 848 Services 0 60,788 K
svchost.exe 884 Services 0 27,812 K
svchost.exe 1036 Services 0 9,796 K
and i need only for the first and the last column.
is there a way to desplay only the columns what i need?
tanks

Answer 1

This isn't perfect as the fields in tasklist vary with the length of the task names, but it may be good enough for you.
It uses a helper batch file called repl.bat from - http://www.dostips.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3855
tasklist|repl "^(.......................).*(.............)$" "$1 $2" m
Adjust the length of the first set of (....) to suit you.

Answer 2

A big helper is, that the columns have a fixed width, so you can use the following ugly one liner:
for /f "delims=" %I in ('tasklist') do #set "_=%I"&#call echo.^%_:~0,25^% ^%_:~64^%
or better this batch file:
#echo off
setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS DISABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION
for /f "skip=1 delims=" %%I in ('tasklist') do (
set "_=%%I"
call echo %%_:~0,25%% %%_:~64%%
)
endlocal
the call and %% syntax is my preferred style instead of DELAYEDEXPANSION which I always try to avoid, because it had some annoying side effects in my experience. Therefore I declared it bad style in our department and I'm a bit preachy about it :).