When using a variable in Bash, why does it result in "No such file or directory" error while using the path directly does not?

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When using a variable in Bash, if the value of the variable contains spaces or other special characters, these characters will be treated as separators by the command interpreter. This can cause the command interpreter to interpret the path as multiple arguments instead of a single argument, resulting in the "No such file or directory" error.

For example, if you have a variable:

my_path="/Users/my user/Documents/myfile.txt"

And you try to use it in a command:

cat $my_path

The command interpreter will interpret the variable as multiple arguments:

cat /Users/my user/Documents/myfile.txt

Which will result in the "No such file or directory" error, because it will try to open two separate files ("/Users/my" and "user/Documents/myfile.txt").

However, if you use the path directly in the command, it will be treated as a single argument:

cat "/Users/my user/Documents/myfile.txt"

And the command will execute correctly.