Say you have a project in Stata with multiple collaborators, each of them with their local copy in a different path. This often happens when if you collaborate via Git or a cloud storage platform. Everyone will need to execute the same master run - but unlike Python or R scripts, Stata do-files do not "know" their location.
Let's see a few solutions on how to set the project path as a global at the beginning of your master do-file.
This solution works but requires every collaborator to change the line manually before running. Annoying.
* Define user-dependant project path
global projectpath "C:/Users/adalovelace/git/This_Project/" // CHANGE HERE!
Alternatively, you could spell out everyone's path and recognize the path by the username. But any time a new collaborator joins, you will need to update this section. And fingers cross none of your users has the the same username that should point to different paths.
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Define user-dependant project paths
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Ada Lovelace
if inlist("`c(username)'","adalovelace","adaalterego") {
global projectpath "C:/Users/`c(username)'/git/This_project/"
}
* Alan Turing
else if inlist("`c(username)'","aturing") {
global projectpath "/users/`c(username)'/git/This_project/"
}
* Charles Babbage
else if inlist("`c(username)'","charles","id12345") {
global projectpath "C:/Users/`c(username)'/GitHub/This_project/"
}
/* WELCOME!!! ARE YOU NEW TO THIS CODE?
Add yourself by copying the lines above, making sure to adapt your clone */
* If none of above cases, give an error
else {
noi disp as error _newline "{phang}Your username [`c(username)'] could not be matched with any profile. Please update the master do-file accordingly and try again.{p_end}"
error 2222
}
The command whereis can be installed from SSC. It maintains a directory of external programs and ancillary files and folders.
If all your projects are subfolders of a particular folder, you can store that location through whereis manually once.
That is, one time per computer, you would type:
ssc install whereis
whereis github "C:/Users/adalovelace/git/"
Then every Stata instance after that will have this location returned to you. That is, whereis git will return the macro r(github): "C:/Users/adalovelace/git/"
Once everyone has manually set whereis git once, then have in your master do-file:
whereis github
global projectpath "`r(github)'/This_project/"
Even if you are not part of a team, but rather changes between computers a lot, this can be useful. I have whereis installed with the stored locations of my GitHub and Dropbox folders and a handful of applications (Pandoc, 7zip, R) in all my computers.
To be more clear and help future users/collaborators, you may add a capture, clearer error messages and a check to it.
In addition, you could give the option to locate the file by a dialogue box in case the user does not have whereis.
The code below is an overblown for some, but it is our team's preferred solution.
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Define user-dependant project paths
*-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
* Change here only if this repo is renamed
local this_repo "This_Project"
* Change here only if this master run do-file is renamed
local this_run_do "master_run.do"
* The remaining section is standard in all of our team repositories
* One of two options can be used to "know" the clone path for a given user
* A. the user had previously saved their GitHub location with -whereis-,
* so the clone is a subfolder with this Project Name in that location
* B. through a window dialog box where the user manually selects a file
* Method A - Github location stored in -whereis-
*---------------------------------------------
capture whereis github
if _rc == 0 global clone "`r(github)'/`this_repo'"
* Method B - clone selected manually by user
*---------------------------------------------
else {
* Display an explanation plus warning to force the user to look at the dialog box
noi disp as txt `"{phang}Your GitHub clone local could not be automatically identified by the command {it: whereis}, so you will be prompted to do it manually. To save time, you could install -whereis- with {it: ssc install whereis}, then store your GitHub location, for example {it: whereis github "C:/Users/AdaLovelace/GitHub"}.{p_end}"'
noi disp as error _n `"{phang}Please use the dialog box to manually select the file `this_run_do' in your machine.{p_end}"'
* Dialog box to select file manually
capture window fopen path_and_run_do "Select the master do-file for this project (`this_run_do'), expected to be inside any path/`this_repo'/" "Do Files (*.do)|*.do|All Files (*.*)|*.*" do
* If user clicked cancel without selecting a file or chose a file that is not a do, will run into error later
if _rc == 0 {
* Pretend user chose what was expected in terms of string lenght to parse
local user_chosen_do = substr("$path_and_run_do", - strlen("`this_run_do'"), strlen("`this_run_do'") )
local user_chosen_path = substr("$path_and_run_do", 1 , strlen("$path_and_run_do") - strlen("`this_run_do'") - 1 )
* Replace backward slash with forward slash to avoid possible troubles
local user_chosen_path = subinstr("`user_chosen_path'", "\", "/", .)
* Check if master do-file chosen by the user is master_run_do as expected
* If yes, attributes the path chosen by user to the clone, if not, exit
if "`user_chosen_do'" == "`this_run_do'" global clone "`user_chosen_path'"
else {
noi disp as error _newline "{phang}You selected $path_and_run_do as the master do file. This does not match what was expected (any path/`this_repo'/`this_run_do'). Code aborted.{p_end}"
error 2222
}
}
}
* Regardless of the method above, check clone
*---------------------------------------------
* Confirm that clone is indeed accessible by testing that master run is there
cap confirm file "${clone}/`this_run_do'"
if _rc != 0 {
noi disp as error _n `"{phang}Having issues accessing your local clone of the `this_repo' repo. Please double check the clone location specified in `this_run_do' and try again.{p_end}"'
error 2222
}
* Flag that profile was successfully loaded
*--------------------------------------------
noi disp as result _n `"{phang}`this_repo' clone sucessfully set up (${clone}).{p_end}"'