http://command-line-programming.suite101.com/article.cfm/batch_file_parameter_modifiers
Parameter expansion is the term used to specify what the command processor (Windows or MS-DOS command line environment) does when it retrieves the parameter accessed by one of the built-in
variables %0-%9.
List of Modifiers
The most commonly used modifiers are:
%~ – takes the parameter and removes any quotation marks
%~f – takes the parameter and makes a filename out of it, assuming the file exists
%~$PATH: – searches the PATH variable, to locate the file (as in %~f$PATH:1)
%~s – use short file names only
%~a – retrieves the attributes
%~t – retrieves the date and time
%~z – retrieves the size
%~d – expands to a drive letter
http://www.robvanderwoude.com/parameters.php
^ character is a command to concatenate commands split into multiple lines
