folders command and import delimited returns invalid

[Nicolas Perreault]

Hi,

I have been trying to retrieve the most recent folder out of a number of folders named by dates to set the path for an import delimited but even though displaying my saved local macro works, import delimited returns invalid '2022.02.02' when I use this local macro. Does anyone know what I am doing wrong? Please see my code below.

Thanks,
Nicolas

folders "../data/"
local date = word(r(folders), -1)
display `date'

import delimited using "../data/`date'/stuff.csv", clear

[William Lisowski]

I believe the value of your local macro date is surrounded in quotation marks. The following example may point you in a helpful direction.

. macro list _date
_date:          "2022.02.02"

. display `date'
2022.02.02

. display `" import delimited using "../data/`date'/stuff.csv", clear "'
 import delimited using "../data/"2022.02.02"/stuff.csv", clear 

. local date `date'

. display `" import delimited using "../data/`date'/stuff.csv", clear "'
 import delimited using "../data/2022.02.02/stuff.csv", clear

[Nicolas Perreault]

Thanks a lot William. That was the issue. So for others that might have my problem, like William did, the solution is to add an extra step such that you have:
local date = word(r(folders), -1)
local date `date'

and using macro list _date is much better than using display `date'.

[Hemanshu Kumar]

For the benefit of others who are wondering, like I was: folders in #1 is a community-contributed command, available from SSC:

ssc install fs

An inbuilt option would have been:

local folders: dir "../data/" dirs *
local date: word `:list sizeof folders' of `folders'

That would also obviate the need for the extra step

local date `date'

[Nick Cox]

Thanks for #4. I wondered what folders was -- some official command I didn't know? -- and now I see that it is part of a package fs that I wrote in 2006. The moral of that is

Please explain where community-contributed commands come from -- because even command authors who just by chance are reading your thread may not recognise their own offspring.