didling with the String manipulation function in shell is a pain, but yes you can do it.

from what I understand you have to play some tricks to combine variables.

(I looked at this: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/7846560/how-concatenate-two-variables-in-batch-script)

anyway, I would start by getting each part of the current DATE into three variables:

set MM=%DATE:~4,2%

set DD=%DATE:~7,2%

set YY=%DATE:~10,4%

then create your new yymmdd variable by combining them:

setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion

set yyyymmdd=!%YY%%MM%%DD%!

I hate messing with batch scripting because it is so ugly (not like unix shells) but if you are a DBA you end up needing to use it at times.