RE: st: Files, Directories and Macros

[Nick Cox <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk>]

I now see the whole of what you are doing. My previous post was based on reading your previous. 

There is a small conflict here. First, the extended macro function does wrap each filename in " ". That's a good idea because many users, especially under MS Windows, put spaces in filenames, and Stata won't understand them otherwise. 

But you want to use " " around the whole of your string and that clashes with the " " already there. That's why you need to strip off the " ". 

But note that the -: dir- business will only work here if it finds precisely one file. If it finds none, -use- won't work. If it finds two or more, -use- won't work. 

Nick 
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk 

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu [mailto:owner-statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu] On Behalf Of Andrés Castañeda
Sent: 31 January 2012 19:36
To: statalist@hsphsun2.harvard.edu
Subject: Re: st: Files, Directories and Macros

Dear Nick,

You are right, it worked. Thank you so much.

The solution is therefore the line 3 of the following sequence:

local dir "C:/Temp"
local data: dir "`dir'" files "*.dta"
local data `data'
use "`dir'/`data'", clear


Best,

Andres


On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 1:37 PM, Nick Cox <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk> wrote:
> I disagree. I expect those " " are there precisely because you put them there. If previously to this you had
>
> . local data `""example.dta""'
>
> then you are insisting that the " " are part of the macro, not delimiters. Re-define
>
> . local data example.dta
>
> and everything should work.
>
> Nick
> n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk
>
> Andrés Castañeda
>
> I think there is something weird with the extended function of the macros:
> If I type,
>
> macro dir
> _data:          "example.dta"
> _dir:           C:\Temp
>
> Notice that macroname data is enclosed in double quotes while the
> macroname dir is not.
>
> how can i get with macros the following path: "C:/Temp/example.dta"
> ???? I tried the forward slash instead of the backward slash and I
> still got an error:
>
> use "`dir'/`data'", clear
> invalid 'example.dta'
>
>
> Thanks,
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 10:16 AM, Maarten Buis <maartenlbuis@gmail.com> wrote:
>> 2012/1/31 Andrés Castañeda :
>>> 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.
>> <snip>
>>>  use "$dir\"`data', clear
>>> invalid '"example.dta'
>>
>> See: Nicholas J Cox (2008) Stata tip 65: Beware the backstabbing
>> backslash. The Stata Journal, 8(3): 446-447.
>> <http://www.stata-journal.com/article.html?article=pr0042>
>>
>> In short, the answer is:
>> use "$dir/`data'", clear
>>

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