change directory in batch file using variable

Question

Here's the question:

set Pathname = C:\Program Files
cd %Pathname%
pause

The above doesn't change the directory, as I would expect. Can anybody please tell me why?

Answer 1

The set statement doesn't treat spaces the way you expect; your variable is really named Pathname[space] and is equal to [space]C:\Program Files.

Remove the spaces from both sides of the = sign, and put the value in double quotes:

set Pathname="C:\Program Files"

Also, if your command prompt is not open to C:\, then using cd alone can't change drives.

Use

cd /d %Pathname%

or

pushd %Pathname%

instead.