Working with macros to change directory

[Pavel Jelnov]

Dear all,

I meet difficulties while changing the directory using macros.

Specifically, I am trying to change to "F:/Research/economy"

The word "economy" is stored in a local, because I loop over different folders in "F:/Research/"

While running

global path "F:\Research"

foreach topic in "economy" {
cd "$path`topic'"
}

I receive a weird message

unable to change to F:\Research`topic'
r(170);



But while running

global path "F:\Research"

foreach topic in "economy" {
cd "$path `topic'"
}

I receive

unable to change to F:\Research\ economy
r(170);

which is of course true because there is no such folder " economy" (with a space before economy).

What should I do?

[Kazi Bacsi]

Try adding a backslash for the subfolder names (it seems it gets trimmed off):

global path "F:\Research"

foreach topic in \economy {
cd "$path`topic'"
}

[As I see the backslash escapes the ` character]

[Nick Cox]

Nothing in your code supplies the slash you need, so the problem is inevitable.

global path "F:\Research"

foreach topic in "economy" {
    cd "$path`topic'"
}

I disagree with Kazi's advice. Using backslash is a documented source of difficulties. See e.g..

[U] 18.3.11 Constructing Windows filenames using macros http://www.stata.com/manuals14/u18.pdf

http://www.stata-journal.com/sjpdf.h...iclenum=pr0042

Forward slashes will work fine, even under Windows:

global path "F:/Research"

foreach topic in "economy" {
    cd "$path/`topic'"
}

[Roy Ludwig]

I just upgraded from Stata 11 IC to Stata 15 MP and encounter "unable to change" directory error in Stata 15 that I don't encounter in Stata 11, when trying to change directory using a local macro.

Code:
display %td_NN_CCYY date(c(current_date), "DMY")
07 2017

.
. local mesyr : di %td_NN_CCYY date(c(current_date), "DMY")

. di "`mesyr'"
07 2017

cd "C:\Bossa Nova\collections agency models\rbrasilsolucoes\IBI"
C:\Bossa Nova\collections agency models\rbrasilsolucoes\IBI

. local drive "`mesyr'"

. cd "`drive'"
unable to change to 07 2017


If I manually input the directory name with cd command, it works. It also works fine with local macro in Stata 11.
What change do I need to make in this code for it two work in Stata 15?

Thanks.