trouble with paths defined by macro

[Little, Jonathon]

Hi all good people of the SPSS variety,

is anyone able to clarify why my GET FILE command will not work?  The
warning I get back is

>A macro symbol is invalid in this context.

The syntax is

FILE HANDLE eddc_data/NAME= '\\Nt342\ShaZSd$\Health Data Collections\Non
Admitted Data\SPSS BASE DATA SETS\EDDC\'.

DEFINE !filename () "ED_BASE_25_JUL_2007_ALL" !ENDDEFINE.

GET FILE = eddc_data + !filename.sav.

Most appreciative of any help anyone can provide
 
Jonathon Little
<http://www.health.wa.gov.au/home/>

[Marta Garcia-Granero]

Hi Jonathon

I don't think FILE HANDLEs can be used that way.

Anyway, this should work:

FILE HANDLE eddc_data/NAME= '\\Nt342\ShaZSd$\Health Data Collections\Non '+
'Admitted Data\SPSS BASE DATA SETS\EDDC\'.

FILE HANDLE TheFile/NAME='eddc_data\ED_BASE_25_JUL_2007_ALL.sav'.

GET FILE = 'TheFile'.

HTH,
Marta Garcia-Granero

> is anyone able to clarify why my GET FILE command will not work?  The
> warning I get back is
>
>
>> A macro symbol is invalid in this context.
>>
>
> The syntax is
>
> FILE HANDLE eddc_data/NAME= '\\Nt342\ShaZSd$\Health Data Collections\Non
> Admitted Data\SPSS BASE DATA SETS\EDDC\'.
>
> DEFINE !filename () "ED_BASE_25_JUL_2007_ALL" !ENDDEFINE.
>
> GET FILE = eddc_data + !filename.sav.

[Albert-Jan Roskam]

From the SPSS manual (v15):

FILE HANDLE assigns a unique file handle to a path
and/or file and supplies operating system
specifications for the file

Examples:
FILE HANDLE thisMonthFile
/NAME='c:\sales\data\july.sav'.

* this is what you are trying to do:
FILE HANDLE dataDirectory /NAME='c:\sales\data'.
GET FILE 'thisMonthFile'.
GET FILE 'dataDirectory\july.sav'.

So what you're trying to do should be possible. But I
don't know what's going wrong in your case. How many
characters is the total path length, including the
file name itself? I vaguely remember that this should
not exceed a certain number, I believe it's 256
characters. But I am not sure that it was SPSS that
has this limitation.

Did you also look at the CD command. It might be
useful for you too.

Albert-Jan


--- Marta Garcia-Granero <[hidden email]>
wrote:

> Hi Jonathon
>
> I don't think FILE HANDLEs can be used that way.
>
> Anyway, this should work:
>
> FILE HANDLE eddc_data/NAME= '\\Nt342\ShaZSd$\Health
> Data Collections\Non '+
> 'Admitted Data\SPSS BASE DATA SETS\EDDC\'.
>
> FILE HANDLE
>

TheFile/NAME='eddc_data\ED_BASE_25_JUL_2007_ALL.sav'.

>
> GET FILE = 'TheFile'.
>
> HTH,
> Marta Garcia-Granero
>
> > is anyone able to clarify why my GET FILE command
> will not work?  The
> > warning I get back is
> >
> >
> >> A macro symbol is invalid in this context.
> >>
> >
> > The syntax is
> >
> > FILE HANDLE eddc_data/NAME=
> '\\Nt342\ShaZSd$\Health Data Collections\Non
> > Admitted Data\SPSS BASE DATA SETS\EDDC\'.
> >
> > DEFINE !filename () "ED_BASE_25_JUL_2007_ALL"
> !ENDDEFINE.
> >
> > GET FILE = eddc_data + !filename.sav.
>

Cheers!
Albert-Jan

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did you know that 87.166253% of all statistics claim a precision of results that is not justified by the method employed? [HELMUT RICHTER]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


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