Handle spaces in argparse input

Question

Using python and argparse, the user could input a file name with -d as the flag.

parser.add_argument("-d", "--dmp", default=None)

However, this failed when the path included spaces. E.g.

-d C:\SMTHNG\Name with spaces\MORE\file.csv

NOTE: the spaces would cause an error (flag only takes in 'C:SMTHNG\Name' as input).

error: unrecognized arguments: with spaces\MORE\file.csv

Took me longer than it should have to find the solution to this problem... (did not find a Q&A for it so I'm making my own post)

Answer 1

Bumped into this problem today too.

-d "foo bar"

didn't help. I had to add the equal sign

-d="foo bar"

and then it did work.

Answer 2

Simple solution: argparse considers a space filled string as a single argument if it is encapsulated by quotation marks.

This input worked and "solved" the problem:

-d "C:\SMTHNG\Name with spaces\MORE\file.csv"

NOTICE: argument has "" around it.

Answer 3

For those who can't parse arguments and still get "error: unrecognized arguments:" I found a workaround:

parser.add_argument('-d', '--dmp', nargs='+', ...)
opts = parser.parse_args()

and then when you want to use it just do

' '.join(opts.dmp)

Answer 4

After some experiments (python 2.7 Win10) I found out that the golden rule is to put quotes ("") around arguments which contain spaces and do NOT put if there are no spaces in argument. Even if you are passing a string/path. Also putting a single quotes ('') is a bad idea, at least for Windows.

Small example: python script.py --path ....\Some_Folder\ --string "Here goes a string"