Relative File Paths

Share icon

Hi, I am trying to save files using a relative file path. I want the files to be saved in a folder called Data. If this folder does not exist, then I want the procedure to create it. For some reason when I run these two lines of code, 

String newCSVFolder  = "::Data:"
NewPath/C/O saveFolder, location + newCSVFolder



an error message is generated. The message says "The operation could not be completed because Windows OS error - Access Denied. Do you want help?"

When I change the String newCSVFolder to the full path name, the procedure performs precisely as I want it to.
It's not clear what is in location.

When I change the String newCSVFolder to the full path name, the procedure performs precisely as I want it to

This makes me think that location is an empty string.

The path passed to NewPath must be a full path because Igor has no concept of a current directory.

Assuming that you know what your relative path is relative to, you should be able to convert your relative path to a full path.

If this does not solve the problem then create a demo function that illustrates the problem and specifies what you mean by "location" and what you want the path to be relative to.

August 7, 2014 at 12:11 pm - Permalink
I apologize for that typo. location originally held the full path to where I wished to create the folder called Data, but I want this code to work on any computer that I might use it on, not just mine.So for this case assume that location is "". Is there any way to create a folder just outside of whatever folder contains the experiment (.pxp) file? I just want to ascend one directory (in Java it would just be two periods "..Data").

August 7, 2014 at 03:01 pm - Permalink
Is there any way to create a folder just outside of whatever folder contains the experiment (.pxp) file?

Yes. Here is how you do it:


// FullPathToHomeFolder()
// Returns colon-separated path to experiment's home folder with trailing colon
// or "" if there is no home folder.
Function/S FullPathToHomeFolder()
	PathInfo home
	if (V_flag == 0)
		// The current experiment was never saved so there is no home folder
		return ""
	endif

	String path = S_path
	return path
End

Function CreateFolderInHomeFolder(folderName, symbolicPathName)
	String folderName				// Name of folder to be created
	String symbolicPathName		// Name to use for the symbolic path
	
	String fullPath = FullPathToHomeFolder()
	if (strlen(fullPath) == 0)
		// Error - there is no home folder because the current experiment was never saved
		return -1
	endif
	fullPath += folderName
	NewPath/O/C $symbolicPathName, fullPath
	return 0						// Success
End

August 7, 2014 at 03:56 pm - Permalink