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Set current directory using $UserDocumentsDirectory

Ehud Behar
Posted 2 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
6 Replies
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Hans Milton
Hans Milton
Posted 2 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"
POSTED BY: Hans Milton
Ehud Behar
Ehud Behar
Posted 2 years ago

I see.

So I can do it in one line with 

SetDirectory[$UserDocumentsDirectory]; SetDirectory["MyNewFolder"]

Thanks.
POSTED BY: Ehud Behar
Hans Milton
Hans Milton
Posted 2 years ago

That is right. I just edited my post (adding "A more robust way ..."), before I saw your reply.
POSTED BY: Hans Milton

Hi Ehud

What about:

SetDirectory@FileNameJoin[{$UserDocumentsDirectory, "MyNewFolder"}]

Robert
POSTED BY: Robert Nowak
David Keith
David Keith
Posted 2 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

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. enter image description here 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
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