Pass path with spaces as parameter to bat file

Question

I have a simple bat script that copies files from an known directory to a directory given by the user. How can I pass the path (it might contain spaces) to my script and use it with the xcopy command?

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In my code i have the following

:READ_PWA_PATH     if "%1" == "" (          rem Set default path         set PWA_PATH="C:\Program Files\PWA"         rem         echo You have not specified your PWA url.         echo Default will be assumed: C:\Program Files\PWA.          choice /C:YN /M:"Do you wish to continue [Y] or cancel the script [N]?"             IF ERRORLEVEL ==2 GOTO CANCEL             IF ERRORLEVEL ==1 GOTO READ_WSS_SERVER_EXTENSIONS_PATH         GOTO END     ) else (         set PWA_PATH=%1     ) 

If I simply call the script I get the following error:

C:\Projects\Setup>install.cmd "C:\program files (x86)"  ----------------- SETUP SCRIPT -----------------  files was unexpected at this time. C:\Projects\Setup> 

Answer 1

Use "%~1". %~1 alone removes surrounding quotes. However since you can't know whether the input parameter %1 has quotes or not, you should ensure by "%~1" that they are added for sure. This is especially helpful when concatenating variables, e.g. convert.exe "%~1.input" "%~1.output"