How can I use a variable (i.e. a folder path) as the argument for cd function?

Hi! I think this is a syntax-type question:

I want to use cd to change between directories that are stored in a looping variable. What would be the syntax so cd('path'); can be performed, 'path' being :\Users\p_jarami\A\'

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

projectdir = 'C:\Users\p_jarami\A\';
cd(projectdir)

You should avoid using a variable named "path" as that variable means special things to MATLAB.

[Pablo Jaramillo Restrepo]

Thanks for your prompt response Walter,

I think I should've been more specific. I am not actually using 'path as a variable'. I am looking for a way to use this variable: stationFolder_path2 which is a char-type variable ( 'C:\Users\p_jarami\Desktop\Env. Canada, Montreal - 50km\Daily Data\7011947\'), to get matlab to access this directory using cd (or perhaps another function could work).

The reason of having the path as a variable is because I have this in a For loop that will access multiple folders (and do some stuff in there, then return to the bigger folder and access the next sub-folder), so each time stationFolder_path2 is going to be different. For example the next path will be ' C:\Users\p_jarami\Desktop\Env. Canada, Montreal - 50km\Daily Data\7013279\'

I hope I am more clear now

[Walter Roberson]

cd(stationFolder_path2)

[Qin Tony]

Hi Walter

Similar issue occurred for my case. I need to define refreshed path in one loop. Variable as A=c:\example....; A is changing for each loop. I want to apply cd for variable A as 'c:\example....', but neither cd A nor cd 'A' worked... Could you please help me on this?

[Adam]

You could try the solution in the answer you are replying to!! You went to the trouble of finding a relevant question and commenting on an answer so why not simply apply the answer?!

cd( A )

It's highly unlikely that using cd and changing directory in a loop is a good idea in most cases, but that is another matter, depending what you are doing. Using full paths to files is generally far better.

[Maria Byrne]

what worked for me was cd(char(A)) since A was actually a cell even though it looked like a string