st: Files, Directories and Macros

[Andrés Castañeda <r.andres.castaneda@gmail.com>]

Dear Stata list,

I have a problem using macros to organize files. Let’s say that in the
folder "C:\Temp" I have a UNIQUE dta file named “example.dta”. I need
to call this file in Stata by using macros.
*  First I define a global that contains the directory path and a
local with the name of the file (I have tried with both globals, both
locals and the other way around but the results is still the same)
global dir "C:\Temp”
local data: dir "$dir" files "*.dta"

* If I check with the display option in seems to work.
 di "$dir"
C:\Temp

 di `data'
example.dta

 di "$dir\"`data'
C:\Temp\example.dta


*  But if I am going to use the file following the same structure than
above I got the following error:
 use "$dir\"`data', clear
invalid '"example.dta'

I have tried to do this in several ways; using double quotes, compound
double quotes, single quotes, among others. I don’t know what the
right combination of quotes is in order to get the file….

Thank you so much.






--
___

Best,


Andrés Castañeda
World Bank, LAC-PREM
Research Associate
acastanedaa@worldbank.org
Tel 1(202) 677 - 8971
1850 I st, NW, Washington, DC.

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