Absolute Path with one backslash not working in Vs Code - visual-studio-code

Adding copy pasted absolute paths into VS Code editor such as "C:\Users\username\Desktop\filename.txt" does not work, it throws the 'The system cannot find the file specified.' error.
But instead "C:\\Users\\username\\Desktop\\filename.txt" does work. How can I make it read the copy pasted absolute path so I don't have to modify it every time?

Related

Change file paths to make links to local files work in VSCode Markdown

When I copy a file path from the Windows file explorer and paste it into VSCode, it looks like that:
\\network_name\project\file 1.txt
For the link to be clickable and point to the right location, I figured that I needed to make 3 modifications: change the backslashes to forward ones, add "file:" at the beginning of the link, and replace spaces by "%20" (yes, my colleagues put spaces in file names everywhere, I can't do anything about that). The working link is the following:
file://network_name/project/file%201.txt
I want to be able to change all file paths from the pasted version to the working version at once in the open Markdown document in VSCode. How can I achieve that? It seems that this is the job for an extension, but I can't find one that does it.
You can use relative links like explained in next solution https://stackoverflow.com/a/59226851/1654688
Also, to use absolute path, this works for me:
[Folder](<file:///C:/Users/username/folder/filename.md>)
Note that including the path inside <> is intended to allow using spaces in the path or filename

Running a Matlab p-file coded for Windows on a MacOS

I have several Windows sourced p-files internally coded with the '\' file separator that I want to run on Matlab under macOS.
I get errors caused by the '\' because macOS uses '/'.
eg The pfile tries to call a file named "model\xyz' which causes a warning:
"Name is nonexistent or not a directory: model\ "
1) Is there code that I might insert somewhere to recognise the 'model\' call from the pcode file and change it to 'model/' before it is used by MATLAB addpath?
2) Is there a generic fix I could apply to the addpath code?
3) Or better still is there a way to modify the Windows p-file without access to its source code so that it will run under macOS?
There are several things you can do (none of which are particularly easy; listed here in increasing order of how nasty I think they are):
Contact the author of the code and ask them to fix it.
Install an older MATLAB version (R2007b <= ver < R2015b, I think) which allowed debugging (stepping into) p-files within MATLAB, then, assuming that there is some line in the original source code that does
filepath = ['model' '\' 'xyz.m'];
step until you see filepath appear in the workspace (having the wrong path in it), then simply edit the value to the correct path, and hope for the best.
(Essentially the same idea as before, but on newer MATLAB versions, VERY DIFFICULT to pull off) Obtain an external debugger, attach to the MATLAB process, run the p-file and scan the memory for the contents of filepath. When you discover it, change the value to the correct path and detach/disable the debugger.
If this code relies on some external (and open source) function to get (or use) the path, you can modify its behavior to output the string you want. This requires some knowledge about the source code.
Find/make a tool for decoding p-files and fix the resulting source code yourself.
For completeness I describe how my problem was solved:
As suggested by Dev-iL I was eventually able to locate the author and he modified his code. This is the best solution but it took some time and is not always possible.
Based on: https://au.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/117110-dealing-with-and-windows-vs-unix-for-path-definition I located a module (I've forgotten its name) within the Matlab package which handles file calls and intercepted all incoming file path names containing the '\' Windows separator, and replaced them with the always acceptable '/'. This quick and dirty fix worked until solution 1. was obtained.
Thanks to all who responded so quickly to this question.

relative path for a MATLAB program called via the search path

I wrote a MATLAB program with a GUI (to enter the measurement settings) and a measurement function which gets called when pressing "START" in the GUI.
In both I use separate files for sub functions to keep it easier to read and maintain.
The file structure looks something like this
C:/../folder/+measure/measure.m
C:/../folder/+measure/getData.m
C:/../folder/+measure/plot.m
C:/../folder/+measure/evalutate.m
C:/../folder/+measureGUI/getGuiData.m
C:/../folder/+measureGUI/calcLimits.m
C:/../folder/+measureGUI/saveGuiState.m
C:/../folder/+measureGUI/loadGuiState.m
C:/../folder/+measureGUI/background.png
C:/../folder/+measureGUI/guiState.mat
C:/../folder/measureGUI.fig
C:/../folder/measureGUI.m
This works, if I'm executing the measureGUI.m in "folder".
The current settings in the GUI are saved in the guiState.mat file when closing the GUI in saveGuiState.m
filename = '+autoProberGUI/guiState.mat';
save(filename, 'guiState');
And loaded (by loadGuiState.m) the next time the GUI gets opened.
Now I have to put the finished program on a network drive and add the folder to my matlab search path to call measureGUI.m.
The program works but it can't save or load the guiState.mat due to the relative path (I guess the path is relative to the folder I'm currently in, and not the folder the calling function is in).
I think I could include the subfolder to the search path or use an absolute path in filename. But both solutions seem to me to be not the proper way.
Is there a way to have relative paths to the file from where the function is located on the drive? Meaning relative to
I:/..NetworkDrive../folder/+measureGUI/saveGuiState.m
instead of relative from where I call measureGUI.m
(Sorry for the poor English, I hope it is not too confusing)
You can use pwd to get the full path to you current working directory.
Then you can concatenate with [pwd '/folder/+measureGUI/saveGuiState.m'].
To locate the function you can use which.

Matlab doesn't read files with tilde (~) instead of full home path

I've noticed a strange behavior of Matlab when accessing files. Say I have a path to a file like this:
path = '~/data/file'
If I run exist(path), the result is 2, i.e. the file exists. If I run
textread(path, '%s')
then I get an error message
Error using dataread
File not found or permission denied.
However, if I expand the tilde and run textread, it works fine:
path2 = '/home/username/data/file'
textread(path2, '%s')
Can you explain this behavior?
Yes, exist understands relative paths (as identified by the tilde), whereas textread does not.
Note that textscan is now the preferred way of reading data from a file - this accepts file identifiers so will work with relative paths.
If this is not an option, a good GetFullPath function can be found here.

MATLAB error when running the program "try.m"

After creating a MATLAB (version 2010a) file in the editor, I am getting the below mentioned error:
"MATLAB cannot run this file because \toolbox\matlab\lang\try.m shadows it in MATLAB path"
Also with this I get an option to "change folder", "add the path". Even after clicking and working around with this option I keep getting the same message.
I looked up in the matlab manual and tried to change the path. Also I checked my path variable, the place where I am storing my matlab files is already there in the path variable. Please help correcting the error. The name of my file is try.m
The code inside 'try.m' is just:
clear all;
TRY is a reserved word in MATLAB, so you shouldn't use it for your filename. Rename "try.m" to something else and you should be fine. You can do this using the "Save As" from the Editor menu and typing a different name.
Is your file in the file editor also named lang.m? Because Matlab sometimes cannot resolve scope differences between m-files in the current directory and m-files that represent built-in functions. It does not appear to be telling you that your file is not in the path; rather it seems to be saying it cannot distinguish your file from \toolbox\matlab\lang.
Can you provide more details about what your file is, such as posting the code and including the working directory name?