Change working directory for using multiple machines using - capture do -

[Rebecca Boehm]

Dear Statalist,

In my current job I used multiple computers to do my Stata work from multiple offices. Most of the computers are MACs, but one of them is a PC.

As a result, each time I move locations to do work I need to always SLIGHTLY change the directory from which I am pulling data files into Stata in my do file programs.

Here is an example. I start all my do files generally like this on a PC:

clear 

set more off 

global myfiles "c:\Users\rnb16003\filepath to stata files"

cd "$myfiles" 

import excel using "$myfiles\name_of_file.xls"

But sometimes I am working on this file from the following place (from a mac):

clear

set more off

global myfiles "/Users/mac_username/filepath to stata file"

cd "$myfiles" 

import excel using "$myfiles/name_of_file.xls"

Each time then I have to by hand change the file path that I'm working from and that's getting a bit tedious!

I tried this, assuming capture would force the program to keep going until it hit the directory that worked on the machine I was on at the moment:

clear 

set more off 

capture global myfiles "c:\Users\rnb16003\filepath to stata files"
capture global myfiles "/Users/mac_username/filepath to stata file"

cd "$myfiles" 

capture import excel using "$myfiles\name_of_file.xls" 
capture import excel using "$myfiles/name_of_file.xls"

This isn't working, though.

Does anyone else have a trick I could use? Thanks so much for your help!

[Jorrit Gosens]

Use fastcd:
https://ideas.repec.org/c/boc/bocode/s429301.html

And create a list of filepaths on each machine, e.g.,

cd "filepath"
c cur myfiles

On both your mac and pc. Running ado's starting with the line

c myfiles

will then switch to the correct location for each machine

[Rebecca Boehm]

You're the best, Jorrit, thanks!