The issue occurs because the CALL command re-parses the string, treating & as a command separator. To fix this, escape the ^ and & in the variable.

Solution: batch Copy Edit @echo off setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion

set "var1=ab^^cd^&ef" set "var2=foo"

echo !var1! echo !var2!

call echo !var1! call echo !var2!

pause Explanation: ^^ escapes the ^, and ^& escapes the & so it is handled properly by CALL. This allows both echo and call echo to display the full string.