Assign output of a program to a variable using a MS batch file

I need to assign the output of a program to a variable using a MS batch file.

So in GNU Bash shell I would use VAR=$(application arg0 arg1). I need a similar behavior in Windows using a batch file.

Something like set VAR=application arg0 arg1.

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One way is:

application arg0 arg1 > temp.txt
set /p VAR=<temp.txt

Another is:

for /f %%i in ('application arg0 arg1') do set VAR=%%i

Note that the first % in %%i is used to escape the % after it and is needed when using the above code in a batch file rather than on the command line. Imagine, your test.bat has something like:

for /f %%i in ('c:\cygwin64\bin\date.exe +"%%Y%%m%%d%%H%%M%%S"') do set datetime=%%i
echo %datetime%