Particularly with Anaconda and Python, having a space anywhere in the file path causes the entire program to just implode, causes some of the launchers to not work, and is generally a giant pain in the ass.

This is especially weird because most systems allow white space in folder and file names with no issue (i.e. Windows and its "Program Files" install directory, for example).

I wrote a program that creates a directory/sub-directories in a specified location. I wrote it so that it allows for users to input what they want the directory to be named and then opens the newly created folder in file explorer, however, if a user chooses a file name that includes spaces I get an error.

import os

file = input(“Please enter file name: “)
user_id = os.getlogin()
filepath = f”C:/Users/{user_id}/Desktop”
path = os.path.join(filepath,file)

try:
    os.makedirs(path)
except FileExistsError:
    print(“This file name already exists”)

os.system(f”start C:/Users/{user_id}/Desktop/{file}”)

I tried using the replace method to insert escape characters and looked into pathlib but couldn’t figure out how to get around the spaces.

The error I get is a Windows error, not Python, but I’ve included it anyways (the file name I tried was TEST FOLDER).

Windows cannot find ‘C:/Users/12345/Desktop/TEST.’ Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again.

I'm trying to write some code to open a file with its default program, but it can't be opened because the filename has spaces in it.

import subprocess
subprocess.Popen(['start', 'C:\\Folder\\This File'], shell=True)

Running this just opens the command prompt for some reason. It opens the file just fine if I remove the spaces, but I want to leave the spaces in the filename. I've googling solutions but none are for this function I'm trying to use. How do I go about this?