Return var back to the calling batch file

Question

I run a batch file to process some code, it calls another batch file at the same time and should get a returned variable, but the methods described in the local / endlocal man pages do not seem to work here, what am I doing wrong?

first batch file:

@ECHO OFF
setlocal
call secondbatchfile.bat xyz
echo. [%val1%]

second batch file:

@if (@a==@b) @end /*                        <== btw what does this code do ???
@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion
set "URL=%~1"
set bla bla ...
do bla bla ...

for /f "delims=" %%I in ('cscript /nologo /e:jscript "%~f0" "%URL%"') do (

rem trim whitespace from beginning and end of line
for /f "tokens=*" %%x in ("%%~I") do set "line=%%x"

rem test that trimmed line matches "variable=number"
echo !line! | findstr /i "^to[a-z]*=[0-9]*" >NUL && (

rem test was successful.  Scrape number.
for /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%x in ("%%I") do set "val1=%%x"

echo !val1!                            <== this works
ENDLOCAL & SET top=%val1%              <== this not

)
)

it leads to:

c:\test>firstbatchfile.bat
123456789                                   <== this works
 []                                         <== this not

I tried using a different return var syntax like !val1!or %%val1- no one worked. What am I missing?

UPDATE: regarding another example here on the site , I tried:

call seconbatchfile.bat xyz ret1
echo. [%2%] [%ret1%]

and in the secon file:

rem ENDLOCAL & SET %2=!val1!

doesn't work too?

DECISION:

script rojo, , , :

for /f "delims=" %%I in ('cscript /nologo /e:jscript "%~f0" "%URL%"') do (

rem trim whitespace from beginning and end of line
for /f "tokens=*" %%x in ("%%~I") do set "line=%%x"

rem test that trimmed line matches "variable=number"
echo !line! | findstr /i "^[a-z]*=[0-9]*" >NUL && (

echo(%%I

)
)

, , , :

@ECHO OFF
setlocal
for /f "delims=" %%I in ('secondbatchfile.bat "http://xyz"') do (

echo %%I | findstr /i "top" >NUL && (

for /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%x in ("%%I") do (
set "updir=%%x"
)
)
echo %%I | findstr /i "low" >NUL && (

for /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%x in ("%%I") do (
set "lowdir=%%x"
)
)
)

echo.[%updir%]
echo.[%lowdir%]

rojo

Answer 1

, for . setlocal script .

first.bat:

@echo off
setlocal

for %%x in (
    "http://10.0.0.1/foo/vars.txt"
    "http://10.0.0.1/bar/vars.txt"
    "http://10.0.0.1/baz/vars.txt"
    "http://10.0.0.1/qux/vars.txt"
    "http://10.0.0.1/corge/vars.txt"
) do (
    for /f "delims=" %%I in ('fetchvalue.bat "%%~x"') do (
        set "val1=%%I"
    )
    echo.[%val1%]
)

fetchvalue.bat:

@if (@a==@b) @end /*

:: fetchvalue.bat <url>
:: output the "value" part of variable=value from a text file served by http

@echo off
setlocal
if "%~1"=="" goto usage
echo "%~1" | findstr /i "https*://" >NUL || goto usage

set "URL=%~1"

for /f "delims=" %%I in ('cscript /nologo /e:jscript "%~f0" "%URL%"') do (

    rem trim whitespace from beginning and end of line
    for /f "tokens=*" %%x in ("%%~I") do set "line=%%x"

    rem test that trimmed line matches "variable=number"
    echo !line! | findstr /i "^to[a-z]*=[0-9]*" >NUL && (

        rem test was successful.  Scrape number.
        for /f "tokens=2 delims==" %%x in ("%%I") do echo(%%x
    )
)

goto :EOF

:usage
echo Usage: %~nx0 URL
echo     for example: %~nx0 http://www.google.com/
echo;
echo The URL must be fully qualified, including the http:// or https://
goto :EOF

JScript */
var x=new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
x.open("GET",WSH.Arguments(0),true);
x.setRequestHeader('User-Agent','XMLHTTP/1.0');
x.send('');
while (x.readyState!=4) {WSH.Sleep(50)};
WSH.Echo(x.responseText);

---

first.bat, , low high .

@echo off
setlocal enabledelayedexpansion

for %%x in (
    "http://10.0.0.1/foo/vars.txt"
    "http://10.0.0.1/bar/vars.txt"
    "http://10.0.0.1/baz/vars.txt"
    "http://10.0.0.1/qux/vars.txt"
    "http://10.0.0.1/corge/vars.txt"
) do (
    set low=
    for /f "delims=" %%I in ('fetchvalue.bat "%%~x" ^| sort') do (
        if not defined low set "low=%%I"
        set "high=%%I"
    )
    echo low: !low!
    echo high: !high!
)

Answer 2

top: set top=%val1%. set val1=%val1%.

...
echo !val1!
ENDLOCAL & SET val1=%val1%