Double quotes and spaces in filenames...cause problems

[miskox]

Hi all,

let's say I have a file with a space in the filename:

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@echo off
>file1.txt (echo TEST)
>"file 2.txt" (echo TEST)

if exist "file1.txt" echo 1
if exist ""file1.txt"" echo 2
if exist "file 2.txt" echo 3
if exist ""file 2.txt"" echo 4

results:

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1
2
3

So file "file 2.txt", which has space in the filename, is not recognized and this might cause problems. If filename does not contain a space double quotes are OK.

So it is important to remove duplicate quotes for the program to work as expected.

And now make files 'file' and '2.txt' (file 'file has no extension).

Run the command procedure again. Notepad (or your default .txt editor) will open.

Remove the 'file' file and run it again. Notepad is not started.

Again create the 'file' file and remove file 2.txt.

Now the error we get is:

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2.txt"" is not recognized as an internal command...

Maybe this helps someone.

Saso

[Squashman]

You cannot name files with double quotes so why would you intentionally put two sets of double quotes around your file name?

[penpen]

In addition:
- a separated filename/path string is evaluated to one string (<-- the reason, why ""file 2.txt"" fails), and
- the filename/path is normalized before it is used,
so the following works, too:

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if exist file" "2.txt echo 5
if exist "f"i"l"e" "2"."t"x"t echo 6
f exist "non existing directory\..\"file" "2.txt echo 7

penpen

[miskox]

You cannot name files with double quotes so why would you intentionally put two sets of double quotes around your file name?

(Sorry for a late reply)

For example when using variables with quotes or something:

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set filnam="%fil%"

might cause problems if %fil% already has quotes etc. In this way we can have double qoutes and

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if exist ....

command will not work as expected. So we know that we must remove quotes that are not needed.

Saso

[Squashman]

For example when using variables with quotes or something:

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set filnam="%fil%"

Why are you coding it that way?