Moving entire folders to different directories

[Leonard Scott]

Hello:
I am trying to use the command -mvfiles- which seems to be a good way to move/copy files from one location to another in the local directory.
Where I am trying to employ this is both in moving bulk files as well as many folders that contain files within.


My two main questions where I'm having trouble:
1. I am trying to use -mvfiles- command in a loop where the match(“str”) component is looped through a varlist, as I have several name matches out of a large folder of other folders that I need to move. This does not seem to be working with the loop, but only if I manually input the match string.
2. Does this command work with moving folders, rather than files, I am not sure I was able to get this to work with folders/directory that contain other files, but aren’t files themselves.

Here are my data sets, and below that the code I've tried:

This is the target directory containing multiple folders (that each contain files themselves) that I need to match by name and move to another directory:

clear
input str18 filename
"100-myfile858.type"
"101-myfile55.type" 
"102-myfile893.type"
"103-myfile371.type"
"104-myfile800.type"
"111-myfile610.type"
"112-myfile340.type"
"113-myfile187.type"
"114-myfile834.type"
"115-myfile323.type"
"116-myfile234.type"
"121-myfile752.type"
"122-myfile723.type"
"123-myfile943.type"
"125-myfile705.type"
"126-myfile373.type"
"127-myfile766.type"
"130-myfile201.type"
"131-myfile332.type"
"135-myfile150.type"
"136-myfile679.type"
"137-myfile286.type"
"140-myfile931.type"
"141-myfile597.type"
"142-myfile124.type"
"143-myfile434.type"
"151-myfile13.type" 
"155-myfile691.type"
"156-myfile364.type"
"158-myfile89.type" 
"160-myfile140.type"
"161-myfile245.type"
"165-myfile347.type"
"171-myfile434.type"
"175-myfile46.type" 
"178-myfile96.type" 
"179-myfile20.type" 
"180-myfile337.type"
"181-myfile15.type" 
"190-myfile243.type"
"191-myfile881.type"
"200-myfile43.type" 
"201-myfile925.type"
"205-myfile254.type"
"209-myfile719.type"
"210-myfile510.type"
"211-myfile458.type"
"221-myfile609.type"
end

This is the list that contains the header numbers that I'll match so that only those folders whose names match in the target directory are moved:

clear
input int id str3 id_str
111 "111"
121 "121"
131 "131"
141 "141"
151 "151"
161 "161"
171 "171"
181 "181"
191 "191"
211 "211"
221 "221"
end

And here is the loop code I attempted that does not work:

foreach id of varlist id_str {
mvfiles, infolder("C:\Me\Storage\mainfoldersource") outfolder("C:\Me\Otherstorage\matchedfoldernames") match("`id'*")
}

Note, when I run the code using an individual matching id, it works, just not with the loop:

mvfiles, infolder("C:\Me\Storage\mainfoldersource") outfolder("C:\Me\Otherstorage\matchedfoldernames") match("111*")

But I have so many I need to go through that I am really trying to make a loop that works. Or if anyone else has better methods of doing this sort of work.
Thanks!

[Clyde Schechter]

Your -foreach- code is trying to iterate over a list of variables, and a list of variables that contains only one variable: id_str, at that. What you mean to do is iterate over the values of the variable id_str.

So you want

levelsof id_str, local(ids)
foreach id of local ids {
    mvfiles, infolder("C:\Me\Storage\mainfoldersource") ///
    outfolder("C:\Me\Otherstorage\matchedfoldernames") match("`id'*")
}

Note: I am not familiar with the program mvfiles, so if there is some additional problem with the syntax of that command, I'm not in a position to help you with that. Since your command worked fine outside of the loop and the problem with the loop was clear to me, I jumped in. But I can't help you if there's more to it than this.