Evaluating macros containing ' in Mata

[Niels Henrik Bruun]

Hi
I just made a post with what I thought was a Stata problem,
But for me is a Mata problem.

I would like to get files and directories in a root directory from Mata.

the following code works in most cases, but not when there is a ' in the root directory name, eg:

 mata fls = sprintf(`"\`"\`: dir %s files *'"'"', sprintf(`""%s""', "c:/nhb's folder"))
. mata fls
  `"`: dir "c:/nhb's folder" files *'"'
. mata st_macroexpand(fls)
invalid syntax
  `"s folder" files *'"'

The ' in the directory name makes the code evaluate `: dir "c:/nhb' which is an empty string and gives an error.
Then `"s folder" files *'"' is printed.

Do anyone know a workaround for this?

Thank you in advance.

[daniel klein]

Any reason not to directly use Mata's dir() function to get the files and directories? The only thing that is not supported, as far as I can see, is the respectcase option that could be relevant under Windows.

Best
Daniel

[Niels Henrik Bruun]

Hi Daniel
My rescuer for the second time today.
Thank you very much.
I totally overlooked that function.
A bit embarrassing

Once again thank you

Regards/nhb

[Christophe Kolodziejczyk]

See also pathjoin() for functions manipulating pathnames.

[Niels Henrik Bruun]

Thank you. I will