linux - Unix command to escape spaces

Question

I am new to shell script. Can someone help me with command to escape the space with " ". I have a variable FILE_PATH=/path/to my/text file ,
I want to escape the spaces alone FILE_PATH=/path/to my/text file

I tried with tr -s command but it doesnt help

FILE_PATH=echo FILE_PATH | tr -s " " "\ "

Can somebody suggest the right command !!

Answer 1

If you are using bash, you can use its builtin printf's %q formatter (type help printf in bash):

FILENAME=$(printf %q "$FILENAME")

This will not only quote space, but also all special characters for shell.