Break lengthy path name

[Yuji Shimohira]

Hi all,

I was wondering whether there is a way to "break" a rather lengthy path name. I have tried several things that came to mind, although none of them worked. I have tried:

#delimit ;
global rawdata "C:/Users/xxxx/OneDrive/OneDrive - University of Edinburgh/"
                      "xxxxxx/xxxxxr/xxxxx" ;

global rawdata "C:/Users/xxxx/OneDrive/OneDrive - University of Edinburgh/ ///
                       xxxxxx/xxxxxr/xxxxx"

global rawdata "C:/Users/xxxx/OneDrive/OneDrive - University of Edinburgh/
                       xxxxxx/xxxxxr/xxxxx"

Basically I am trying to fit within 80 columns that global macro. I have "anonymised" some bits of the path, but I have left the "OneDrive - University of Edinburgh" as it is because I have the suspicion that the "-" is causing some problem, somehow.

The first option gives no syntax error, and when I use "display" the path is displayed properly. However, if I then do:

use "$rawdata/xxxx.dta", clear

Stata complains that "xxxxxx/xxxxxr/xxxxx/xxxx.dta" is invalid---which suggests that Stata is not taking the whole path, but the second line after the break. Perhaps because Stata thinks there is a "space" between "...Edinburgh/" and "xxxxxx...."

Any idea would be great. Is it possible (breaking a path name) at all? Thank you!!

[wbuchanan]

You need to use compound double quotes when there are embedded spaces in the string referenced by the macro.

[Sarah Edgington]

Compound quotes aren't going to help in this case, I don't think. The issue is getting the syntax right for breaking the global across lines. This should work:

global rawdata "C:/Users/xxxx/OneDrive/OneDrive - University of Edinburgh/" ///
 "xxxxxx/xxxxxr/xxxxx"

another option would be:

global rawdata "C:/Users/xxxx/OneDrive/OneDrive - University of Edinburgh/"
global rawdata "${rawdata}/xxxxxx/xxxxxr/xxxxx"

[Yuji Shimohira]

Hi both,

Sorry for not having replied as yet---thought I did.

Sarah's second solution works just fine (the first one does not, though). Some explanation: the command "display" seems to display properly the path name (no matter which way of Sarah's post you use). However, the first way "breaks" subsequent commands. For instance:

global rawdata "C:/Users/xxxx/OneDrive/OneDrive - University of Edinburgh/" ///
"xxxxxx/xxxxxr/xxxxx"

display "$rawdata"

log using $rawdata/example, replace text

In this case Stata complains when attempting to start a log file that "-" is invalid. If you use Sarah's second way everything seems to work.

Thanks for your help, by the way.