gnuplot: spaces in file path

Question

How correctly you can use filenames with spaces?

My code:

files = system("dir /b \"d:\\data\\my data\\*.dat\"")

do for [name in files]{

    inputPath = "d:/data/my data/".name
    outputPath = "d:/data/".name.".png"

    set output outputPath
    plot inputPath using 1:3 with lines ls 1 notitle
}

If there are spaces in the file name, the script does not work correctly. For example:

d:/data/my data/data1.csv - all correct

d:/data/my data/data 2.csv - error, 0 size file "data.png" is created and the graph is not created

How to solve this problem?

Answer 1

Basically, you need to replace "\n" with space and put your filenames into quotes ''. The following code might be one way to do this. By the way, your code would generate output names like "Data1.dat.png" and not "Data1.png" from "Data1.csv". Also be aware of the difference of single and double quotes.

### File list with space in filenames (Windows)
reset session

InputPath = 'D:\data\my data\'
OutputPath = 'D:\data\'
SearchExp = 'dir /b "' . InputPath . '*.dat"'
# print SearchExp
LIST = system(SearchExp)
# print LIST

LIST = LIST eq "" ? LIST : "'".LIST."'"  # add ' at begining and end
FILES = ""
do for [i=1:strlen(LIST)] {
    FILES = (LIST[i:i] eq "\n") ? FILES."' '" : FILES.LIST[i:i]
}
# print FILES
print sprintf("The list contains %d files", words(FILES))

do for [FILE in FILES] {
    InputFile = InputPath.FILE
    OutputFile = OutputPath.FILE[1:strlen(FILE)-4].".png"
    print InputFile
    print OutputFile
    # or plot your files 
}
### end of code