For getting a list of filenames and looping through them, you can something
like this:
local files: dir "." files "*.txt"
foreach file of local files {
infile using myfile.dct, using(`file')
gen filename="`file'"
save my`file'
drop _all
}
The first command puts a listing of all files meeting the spec *.txt into
local macro files. The foreach command then loops through these files and
saves each file with a variable for it's filename. You may want use an
append, save, replace approach if you just want one big file as the result.
I don't know of any direct way of getting at the file creation date, but
there have been methods posted where you use an operating system call to get
a directory listing into a text file and then either use the file, infile,
or infix commands to grab the dates as well as the file names. I think
something was recently posted about this.
Michael Blasnik
[email protected]
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Crawford" <[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2004 4:32 PM
Subject: st: reading file creation dates and names
> Hi everyone,
>
> I have approximately 250 text files that I would like to assemble into
> one large data file. The unique identifiers for the observations are
> contained in the file names and the file creation dates. This brings
> me to three questions:
>
> 1 - I would like to automatically create a variable = to the file
> creation date. I read through the various infile, infix, and insheet
> commands in the [R] (as well as the FAQ's), but couldn't find a
> solution.
> 2 - Is there a way of creating a foreach command that does not require
> explicit definition of the items. In other words can I say something
> like foreach file in folder {...
> 3 - If '2' is possible then I will also need to create a variable for
> each of the files = to the file name.
>
> If these are possible, I am sure they have been discussed before, but I
> just couldn't access the information.
>
> Thank you very much for your help.
>
> Kindest regards,
>
> Douglas
>
>
>
> Douglas Crawford
> Ph.D. Candidate, Dept. of Biochemistry UCSF
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