How to handle whitespaces in paths in command line parameters

Question

I have the problem with whitespaces in my console application. My application is crashing because of not allowed chararcters.

My application is expecting an argument which is a path of the filesystem. So it will be called like this

myProg.exe "D:\tmp\with whitespace\"

With that information I want to create a file in the given folder, but this is not possible because of not allowed char.

String pdfName = "foobar.pdf String datapath = args[0]; String targetJobFile = datapath + pdfName + ".txt";

I can see in the debugger that the targetJobFile value is

 "D:\tmp\with whitespace\"foobar.pdf.txt

And there i receive the exception. Thanks

You should use Path.Combine, it will handle issues like this. - Path.Combine on MSDN — crashmstr
– crashmstr, Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 17:57
does this line String pdfName = "foobar.pdf even compile? your parameter should work fine, as they are enclosed in double quotes — Habib
– Habib, Commented Oct 20, 2014 at 17:57

BradleyDotNET · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-20 18:01:21Z

You need to remove the quotes from the argument, so before using it, use Trim:

String realArg = args[0].Trim('"');

You already have the \ that Path.Combine would give you; but if you don't want your users to have to enter it, using Path.Combine is a good way to get the path separator character into your string.

Rahul · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-20 18:19:50Z

Why not just check for existence of " character and replace them before making the full path like

 datapath = datapath.Replace("\"",""); String targetJobFile = datapath + pdfName;

Kiran Lakshmikantha · Accepted Answer · 2014-10-21 16:52:59Z

You can go one step ahead and use Path.GetInvalidPathChars() which will return all invalid characters not allowed in path names and remove it from your path as follows -

modifiedPathName = new Regex(string.Format("[{0}]", Regex.Escape(new string(Path.GetInvalidPathChars())))).Replace(PathName, replaceChar);

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