Why is it bad to use spaces in saving a computer file?

Answer 1

Because many programs parse the input parameters at the spaces. For example:

> someprog.exe input1 input2 input 3

The someprog program might see this as FOUR inputs
1) input1
2) input2
3) input
4) 3

The usual way to make sure this doesn't happen is to surround inputs with space with quotations.

> someprog.exe input1 input2 "input 3"

Now it sees three inputs, the last being input 3

Answer 2

If you are posting these files to the web then you should avoid spaces when naming, otherwise you can use spaces if you want to make things clearer to you. When posting files to the web, some of the older browsers have problems displaying the images or linking to the documents because it sees the space as the end of the filename. An example - if you named your image 'my image.jpg' and tried to add it to a webpage, the old browsers will look for 'my' only and ignore the rest of the name because it encountered a space. Newer browsers are 'smarter' about this and will URL encode the name to remove the space and replace it with a special character that represents the space - will change it to something like 'my%20image.jpg'

Answer 3

Its not usually a bad thing, usually its just a personal preference. However, some programs don't like spaces because a space means the end of the path to the file, such as:

"C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe"

could be read as:

"C:\Program"

because it thinks the space in Program files means that is where the file is and it should stop there. Most programs won't do this though. If a program is having trouble, put " around it and the program should read it fine.

Answer 4

Because of the inconsistencies of various software to compile a data file with a blank space. MS Windows since Win95 has been able to compile long file names (those over 8 characters) but it is some software programs that cannot handle them. Therefore it is a good practice to use an "_" underscore rather than a space in naming files.

Answer 5

Filenames with or without spaces are treated the same by WIN32 platforms. The filename are stored with pointers to their locations on the hard drive by the FAT (file allocation table).

For backward compatibility Microsoft's FAT still allows the old 8.3 format of filename when in a virtual DOS mode (as DOS is no longer part of the Windows system), for example the Command Prompt (cmd.exe). Here, when files are longer than 8.3 they are shortened to the first 6 characters, followed by ~1, then ~2, etc.