How to cd into a directory with space in the name?

Question

I'm attempting to get into the directory /cygdrive/c/Users/my dir/Documents:

$ DOCS="/cygdrive/c/Users/my\ dir/Documents"

$ echo $DOCS
/cygdrive/c/Users/my\ dir/Documents

$ cd $DOCS
-bash: cd: /cygdrive/c/Users/my\: No such file or directory

$ cd /cygdrive/c/Users/my\ dir/Documents
(success)

When I manually type it in, the backspace does its escape character thing, but not when I use parameter expansion with the variable DOCS.

I tried other variations such as no backslash.

$ DOCS=/cygdrive/c/Users/Rahman\ dir/Documents

$ echo $DOCS
/cygdrive/c/Users/my dir/Documents

$ cd $DOCS
-bash: cd: /cygdrive/c/Users/my: No such file or directory

or

$ DOCS="/cygdrive/c/Users/my dir/Documents"

$ echo $DOCS
/cygdrive/c/Users/my dir/Documents

$ cd $DOCS
-bash: cd: /cygdrive/c/Users/my: No such file or directory

The same happens for $HOME:

$ echo $HOME
/home/my dir

cd $HOME doesn't work either. Quotes must be put around it.

What the heck:

$ DOCS="\"/cygdrive/c/Users/my dir/Documents\""

$ echo $DOCS
"/cygdrive/c/Users/my dir/Documents"

$ cd $DOCS
-bash: cd: "/cygdrive/c/Users/my: No such file or directory

Answer 1

Why not put the following in your .cshrc (or .bashrc, or whatever your default shell is):

alias mydoc 'cd "/cygdrive/c/Users/my dir/Documents"'

First time you do this, you have to do

source .cshrc

to update the shell with this new alias, then you can type

mydoc

anytime you want to cd to your directory.

Laziness is the mother of invention...