import delimited "C:\OneDrive\Final\`x'.csv working on Mac but not PC

[Alex Williamson]

Dear all,
I am trying to run code which looks like

foreach x in us_fdiflowsstock us_fdiflowsstock {
    import delimited "C:\OneDrive\Final \`x'.csv", clear

which continues with me reshaping them and merging them into a main dataset.
The datasets are for fdi flows and fdi stocks - both from the world bank so their contents look identical (beyond the fact that the data is different for flows/stocks).
This code works on my Mac (after replacing file directory to be Mac-friendly of course) but on my PC it gives the following,

 file C:\OneDrive\Final.csv not found

Is there a way to fix this without getting rid of the loop?
Thanks!

P.S. I made a post somewhat like this yesterday - that was me making a typing error and then misremembering and thinking that I was coming across this issue.

[Alex Williamson]

Update: I guessed that Stata was somewhat like LaTeX in that backslashes changed it - so changed it to "import delimited "C:\OneDrive\Final\\`x'.csv"" which worked. Of course I did not have this issue on my Mac because the file directories use forward-slashes.
Would it be possible for someone to explain to me what backslahes do - I can always use an opportunity to learn!

[Alex Williamson]

Another update: in my first file each of the us_fdiflowsstock files had numbers after them which I deleted for brevity. I did not realise that this would make them identical. They are both different files, one containing FDI flows and the other FDI stocks.

[daniel klein]

Regarding backslashes, read Cox (2008).

Note that you can (and probably should) use forward slashes with Windows, too.


Cox, N. J. 2008. Stata tip 65: Beware the backstabbing backslash. The Stata Journal,8(3): 446--447.

[Alex Williamson]

Thank you for your helpful reply! I did not know that I could use forward slashes on Windows - I will be implementing that immediately.