[RESOLVED] Need advice: Spaces in Filenames

[Dave Sell]

All,

I come from the old days where filenames were always 8.3. I also used Unix very extensively.

Every fiber in my body says "Spaces in filenames are dangerous, even if it's OK to use some of the time."

Our organization is planning to implement a MS Project server for group-wise collaboration between us and our customers.

This means our office documents will go everywhere from SQL Server to IIS to FTP server, etc...

Recently, our Sales Director decided to standardize our filename naming convention, including a couple spaces in between the date and project name and customer name.

I promptly voiced a concern about having spaces in filenames, but my warnings are falling on deaf ears. I suspect I will be forced to "prove" my position soon.

I looked around for any good books, articles, or anything to help support my position, but really cannot find anything very credible.

I have 2 questions:

(1) Am I off base? Are we to the point today where we can safely assume "spaces in filenames" are never a problem?

(2) Am I on target? If I am on target, how do I "prove" my position effectively?

I look forward to thoughtful replies.

Thanks!

Dave

[Shuja Ali]

In todays worl, Spaces in filenames have become common. Even the files that come from big software giants sometimes contain spaces in the filenames. I don't think that it will create any problem.

[Dave Sell]

Yep. spaces have become common. That is not a good reason to use them. Aren't there some books out there that deal with this topic?

[conipto]

I think the only real danger involves working with really old software, or poorly written software from today. Considering the path to 99% of user's files these days is laden with spaces:

C:\Documents and Settings\User\My Documents\My Pictures\

I would imagine any real harm would already be felt.

Bill

[conipto]

Although, I don't know if some FTP commands will work with the spaced files. I seem to remember using the DOS FTP client once and getting some error trying to do a get on a file with a space in it..

Bill

[Dave Sell]

See, this is what I'm talking about. 90-99% of the time there is no real danger. I am concerned with that 1-10% chance of us kicking ourselves over it. We will be using a great deal of technologies in our company.

[Hack]

We had a problem with spaces in file names a couple of years ago, but I couldn't remember what it was. I sent my boss an email, and he can't remember the specifics (i.e., who the client was at the time or their platform), but he does remember it dealing with FTP'ing files. As a result, spaces are not standard at my company. We use underscores to separate the words in a filename as well as field and table names, and have had no difficulity with anything.

[Dave Sell]

I have heard of many similar accounts as yours. "This or that choked on spaces in filenames." I myself have had many "banana-peels" related to spaces in filenames.

What I really need is some credible ammunition (articles, books) that refer to this issue. As it stands, it's my instinct against his wishes.

[Hack]

I just did a Google search on "Spaces In File Names" and got back quite a few returns. Everyone of them says this is a no no, but I'm not sure how much ammunition any of them would give you.

It might be worth your while to take a look and see.

[Dave Sell]

Ya I spent the better part of a morning googling variations of "spaces in filenames" but if you take notice, the lion's share of the results are Unix/Linux related, or some company's proprietary problems.

I was unable to find some credible opinions regarding "best practices" or anything related to general guidelines that would make my sales-guy take notice.

[Hack]

I just found this. Maybe it will help.

I'll keep looking.

[Dave Sell]

It is a great start, but it looks like the intended audience is the staff at a university. I need something where the intended audience is the world, or at least U.S. businesses.

[RhinoBull]

A major issue will arise the very first time you FTP any of your files with space in its name – it simply won’t work unless you’re using third party’s library that somehow converts all spaces to something and then converts it back... And after developing and/or supporting FTP related apps for dozen or so years I can tell it's no bogus concern – extremly bad idea.

btw, it's not only file names but folder names as well - entire path shall not have any spaces.

[Hack]

I've Googled this issue 47 different ways to Sunday and I can't find anything "official" that might impress your Sales staff. I guess were I in your place I would make it a point to go on record as saying that using spaces in files names is a bad idea, and list off the possible issues that might be faced.

I'm not sure anything "official" does exist, but every industry professional that I know, or have ever known, believes this to be a very bad idea. If our collective opinions don't matter, then I guess your Sales staff is just going to have to learn the hard way.

[Harsh Gupta]

dont know if these links could help you:

http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol6/html_no6.htm

http://www.netmechanic.com/news/vol6/html_no6.htm

http://www.dwheeler.com/secure-progr...ile-names.html

BTW, my googling result, see if something else can help you

Harsh

[Dave Sell]

Common sense wins the day.