Thread: Just a Quick Question

  1. #1
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    Just a Quick Question

    I'm pretty sure this is a question that's pretty common...and it has to do with spaces in file names when asking DOS to run a program.

    ...What can I use in place of the space? I tried a "%20" and even Alt+255, but no such luck.

    Also, is there any other DOS command other than 'start' to execute programs? I'm not exactly well-versed in the ways of using DOS.

  2. #2
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    If it's true DOS, you cannot have spaces in filenames. You might be using a shell, such as the command prompt inside Windows. In that case, you can just put a space in the string.

    To run a program in DOS, you just type the name of the program.

  3. #3
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    well, if you're trying to run run this program.exe in DOS, you would reference it as runthi~1.exe, and if you had two things with similar names, e.g. run this program.exe and run this program number two.exe, you would reference the first one the same way I already told you, and the second one would be referenced like: runthi~2.exe.

    a pretty standard character used to replace spaces is the underscore ('_')
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  4. #4
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    ...What can I use in place of the space? I tried a "%20" and even Alt+255, but no such luck.
    You're trying to type-in a program name with a space? Try putting quotes around everything like this:
    "C:\My Programs\HelloWorld.exe"

    Also, is there any other DOS command other than 'start' to execute programs?
    You can navigate to the program using Windows Explorer and ust double-click it.

    Beware of the Window automatically closing problem.

    What operating system are you using? With Win98 you can open a DOS Window: Start->Programs->MS DOS Prompt. With Win2K, and XP I think it's called "Command Prompt"... and I don't remember how you get there from "Start". Of course, you can put a shortcut on your desktop.

    Once you're in DOS, or the command prompt, you may have to use the Change directory (change folder) command to get into the folder where your program resides:

    CD "C:\My Programs\MyCPP"

    Two dots will take you "up" one level: CD..

    You might try to look-up "DOS commands" on the net. I have a big fat antique "Using DOS" book.

    EDIT -
    Also, look-up the doskey command. It saves a lot of re-typing. See if you can find something on writing DOS batch files. A batch file is a little script... a sequence of DOS comands saved as text (ASCII), with a .bat file extension.

    An example would be:
    CD "C:\My Programs\CPlusPlusPrograms"
    doskey /insert
    Last edited by DougDbug; 01-26-2005 at 07:49 PM.

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