Error while using import command (quotations accepted by a Mac and not accepted by another Mac)

[Guido Damonte]

Hi, I'm new in the Forum but I used Stata in the past while being a RA (and coming back again now).

I wanted to use a global to import files faster. The code is the following (I'm using Mac):

clear all
set more off

global path "/Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia"
import excel $path/RawData/CLASS.xlsx, firstrow clear

It doesn't run on my Mac, but it does run on my colleague's Mac.
What it does run in my Mac is using "" in the command import, as follows:

global path "/Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia"
import excel "$path/RawData/CLASS.xlsx", firstrow clear

Now, this inconsistency is important for us to solve, because my colleague's Mac does not run the code above (with quotation marks).
We both use Stata 17.0

Below, is the error I get from Stata:

. clear all

. set more off

.
. global path "/Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia"

. import excel $path/RawData/CLASS.xlsx, firstrow clear
using required
r(100);

end of do-file

r(100);

Thank you,

Guido

[George Ford]

I suspect the full path is different. Different drive or some such.

[William Lisowski]

global path "/Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia"
import excel $path/RawData/CLASS.xlsx, firstrow clear

fails because after Stata substitutes in the value of $path into your command, it tries to execute

import excel /Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia/RawData/CLASS.xlsx, firstrow clear

and it sees two arguments "Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World" and "Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia/RawData/CLASS.xlsx" and thinks that you are providing a list of variable names to assign to the imported columns and thus there needs to be a "using" following the last variable name before the filename.

global path "/Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia"
import excel "$path/RawData/CLASS.xlsx", firstrow clear

works because after Stata substitutes in the value of $path into your command, it tries to execute

import excel "/Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia/RawData/CLASS.xlsx", firstrow clear

and it now does not treat the embedded space in "World Bank" as the end of the filename.

[Guido Damonte]

global path "/Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia"
import excel $path/RawData/CLASS.xlsx, firstrow clear

fails because after Stata substitutes in the value of $path into your command, it tries to execute

import excel /Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia/RawData/CLASS.xlsx, firstrow clear

and it sees two arguments "Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World" and "Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia/RawData/CLASS.xlsx" and thinks that you are providing a list of variable names to assign to the imported columns and thus there needs to be a "using" following the last variable name before the filename.

global path "/Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia"
import excel "$path/RawData/CLASS.xlsx", firstrow clear

works because after Stata substitutes in the value of $path into your command, it tries to execute

import excel "/Users/guidodamonte/Dropbox/World Bank/LTGM_WesternBalkans/LTGM_Serbia/RawData/CLASS.xlsx", firstrow clear

and it now does not treat the embedded space in "World Bank" as the end of the filename.

Excellent, this was the solution!

Thank you all for your help!