'Pretty print' windows %PATH% variable - how to split on ';' in CMD shell

The simple way is to use

for %a in ("%path:;=";"%") do @echo %~a

This works for all without ; in the path and without " around a single element
Tested with path=C:\qt\4.6.3\bin;C:\Program Files;C:\documents & Settings

But a "always" solution is a bit complicated
EDIT: Now a working variant

@echo offsetlocal DisableDelayedExpansionset "var=foo & bar;baz<>gak;"semi;colons;^&embedded";foo again!;throw (in) some (parentheses);"unmatched ;-)";(too"set "var=%var:"=""%"set "var=%var:^=^^%"set "var=%var:&=^&%"set "var=%var:|=^|%"set "var=%var:<=^<%"set "var=%var:>=^>%"set "var=%var:;=^;^;%"rem ** This is the key line, the missing quote is intendedset var=%var:""="%set "var=%var:"=""%"set "var=%var:;;="";""%"set "var=%var:^;^;=;%"set "var=%var:""="%"set "var=%var:"=""%"set "var=%var:"";""=";"%"set "var=%var:"""="%"setlocal EnableDelayedExpansionfor %%a in ("!var!") do (    endlocal    echo %%~a    setlocal EnableDelayedExpansion)

What did I do there?
I tried to solve the main problem: that the semicolons inside of quotes should be ignored, and only the normal semicolons should be replaced with ";"

I used the batch interpreter itself to solve this for me.

• First I have to make the string safe, escaping all special characters.
• Then all ; are replaced with ^;^;
• and then the trick begins with the line
  set var=%var:"=""%" (The missing quote is the key!).
  This expands in a way such that all escaped characters will lose their escape caret:
  var=foo & bar;;baz<>gak;;"semi^;^;colons^;^;^&embedded";;foo again!;;...
  But only outside of the quotes, so now there is a difference between semicolons outside of quotes ;; and inside ^;^;.
  Thats the key.

A simple one liner to prettying printing the PATH environment variable:

ECHO.%PATH:;= & ECHO.%

If your PATH was equal to A;B;C the above string substitution will change this to ECHO.A & ECHO.B & ECHO.C and execute it all in one go. The full stop prevents the "ECHO is on" messages from appearing.

An update to Stephan Quan's very clever one-liner solution: The problem I encountered was that a trailing semi-colon - (and maybe two successive semi-colons, i.e. empty path element) would cause the message "ECHO is on" to appear. I solved this by inserting a period immediately after the second ECHO statement (which is the syntax to suppress ECHO is on/off messages). However, it will result in an extra empty line:

ECHO %PATH:;= & ECHO.%