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Mathematica Wolfram Language

Set current directory using $UserDocumentsDirectory

Ehud Behar

Posted 3 years ago

I want to set the current working directory for my session with `SetDirectory`. Suppose I have a directory called `MyNewFolder` located in the default "documents" directory. On Mac it is located in /Users/my_user_name/Documents/MyNewFolder How can I set this directory as the working document using `$UserDocumentsDirectory`? Of course I can do SetDirectory["/Users/my_user_name/Documents/" <> "MyNewFolder"] But to make this expression more user-wide, I want a command like SetDirectory[$UserDocumentsDirectory <> "MyNewFolder"] But, of course, it doesn't work. Any idea for how to do that?

POSTED BY: Ehud Behar

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David Keith

Posted 3 years ago

When starting a new project I usually want the notebook, any required files, and any output to reside in the same project directory. After saving the notebook to the project directory I include this SetDirectory[] as a first cell in the notebook: SetDirectory[NotebookDirectory[]]

POSTED BY: David Keith

Ian Williams

Ian Williams, GeoConsult Limited

Posted 3 years ago

Hi David, I often use this exact same approach. But it's a bit of a pain having to include the cell in pretty much each and every NB. So this discussion got me thinking about whether there's a more convenient solution. What I've come up with is setting the value of CellProlog to SetDirectory[NotebookDirectory[]]. This can be done via the Options Inspector (Command-Shift-O on a Mac) and can be set at either the cell, notebook or global level as per the below screenshot. I've not tried using this in the wild, but preliminary testing suggests it works as intended. I'd be interested to hear if anyone has any comments and/or alternative/better solutions. All the best, Ian

POSTED BY: Ian Williams

Robert Nowak

Robert Nowak, IMS Nanofabrication

Posted 3 years ago

Hi Ehud What about: SetDirectory@FileNameJoin[{$UserDocumentsDirectory, "MyNewFolder"}] Robert

POSTED BY: Robert Nowak

Hans Milton

Posted 3 years ago

By default (at least on Windows 10) the current directory is already set to `$UserDocumentsDirectory`. Then you can just go ahead like this: In[1]:= $UserDocumentsDirectory Out[1]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents" In[2]:= Directory[] Out[2]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents" In[3]:= SetDirectory["MyNewFolder"] Out[3]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents\\MyNewFolder" In[4]:= Directory[] Out[4]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents\\MyNewFolder" A more robust way is to do it in two steps: In[1]:= SetDirectory["C:\\Any Wild Folder"] Out[1]= "C:\\Any Wild Folder" In[2]:= Directory[] Out[2]= "C:\\Any Wild Folder" In[3]:= SetDirectory[$UserDocumentsDirectory]; SetDirectory["MyNewFolder"] Out[3]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents\\MyNewFolder" In[4]:= Directory[] Out[4]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents\\MyNewFolder"

By default (at least on Windows 10) the current directory is already set to $UserDocumentsDirectory. Then you can just go ahead like this:

In[1]:= $UserDocumentsDirectory
Out[1]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents"

In[2]:= Directory[]
Out[2]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents"

In[3]:= SetDirectory["MyNewFolder"]
Out[3]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents\\MyNewFolder"

In[4]:= Directory[]
Out[4]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents\\MyNewFolder"

A more robust way is to do it in two steps:

In[1]:= SetDirectory["C:\\Any Wild Folder"]
Out[1]= "C:\\Any Wild Folder"

In[2]:= Directory[]
Out[2]= "C:\\Any Wild Folder"

In[3]:= SetDirectory[$UserDocumentsDirectory]; SetDirectory["MyNewFolder"]
Out[3]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents\\MyNewFolder"

In[4]:= Directory[]
Out[4]= "C:\\Users\\HM\\Documents\\MyNewFolder"

POSTED BY: Hans Milton