st: Re: too many files for dirlist

[n j cox <n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk>]

-dirlist- isn't that old -- it was published by Morten Andersen on SSC 
in 2005. However, Michael is right: its basic approach -- for file names 
-- of calling up OS commands is unnecessary given the Stata hook he
outlines. But -dirlist- does more than that.

Nevertheless, as a convenience, an alternative command (even older,
as it dates from 2004) based on the syntax Michael recommends is -fs-,
also from SSC. (The name -fs- was meant to evoke memories of -ds-,
currently undocumented by StataCorp, but still in official Stata and 
still loved by its putative author.)

That all leaves the original question unanswered. I haven't used
-dirlist- previously, given -fs- as an alternative, but my experiments
lead me to suppose that Carlos' problem will be solved if he types

di "`r(fnames)'"

not

di r(fnames)

Hitherto, I have been cavalier about the difference, but for this 
problem it appears important. In other words, the problem is not
in -dirlist- but in what you do afterwards.

Nick
n.j.cox@durham.ac.uk

Michael Blasnik

-dirlist- is an older user-written ado file.  But you don't need it to 
get a list of file names.  See -help extended_fcn- and look at the dir 
function. Here's an example for retrieving a list of all Stata dta files 
in the current directory:

local fnames: dir . files "*.dta"

Carlos Eduardo Hernandez Castillo

> I have been using dirlist but it seems it has a maximum number of 
characters
> to retrieve in the return macros. For example, in a directory that 
contains
> the following files:
>
> 13areas.dta 7areas.dta Barranquilla.dta Bogota.dta Bucaramanga.dta 
Cali.dta
> Cartagena.dta Cucuta.dta Ibague.dta Manizales.dta Medellin.dta 
Monteria.dta
> NalECH.dta NalENH.dta OcupadosNacional.dta Pasto.dta Pereira.dta
> Proporciones.dta TotalesNacional.dta
>
> "display r(fnames)" would retrieve:
>
> 13areas.dta 7areas.dta Barranquilla.dta Bogota.dta Bucaramanga.dta 
Cali.dta
> Cartagena.dta Cucuta.dta Ibague.dta Manizales.dta Medellin.dta 
Monteria.dta
> NalECH.dta NalENH.dta OcupadosNacional.dta Pasto.dta Pereira.dta
> Proporciones.dta TotalesNacional
>
> I have been looking for an alternative to get the names of all the 
files but I
> have not been able to do so, do you have any idea? I am using Stata 9.2.

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