trying to use the dir / cd(dir) function, "error using cd. unable to change current folder to...(name is nonexistent or not a folder)" message appears

Hi

I am working on an assignment and the first question asks to define the directory. The function I am having trouble with is dir and cd(dir). I am using the live editor function on the online version of Matlab. After following the instructions provided to me from my prof, I end up with this message ""error using cd. unable to change current folder to '/MATLAB Drive/C: \Users\X\Documents\school\Labdata.xlsx'. (name is nonexistent or not a folder). X is just my name. My code is this:

dir = 'C: \Users\X\Documents\school\Labdata.xlsx' ;

cd(dir)

Can someone please explain why I am having this issue and how I can resolve it? Thank you in advance!

[Stephen23]

dir = 'C: \Users\X\Documents\school\Labdata.xlsx' ;
%        ^     invalid path name
%                                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^ cannot CD to a file
%^^ variable name is best avoided

Answer 1

[dpb]

dir = 'C: \Users\X\Documents\school\Labdata.xlsx' ;

Don't use dir as a variable name--it's a builtin function. Use something more like

infile = 'C: \Users\X\Documents\school\Labdata.xlsx';

Isn't the root cause of your problem but will wreak havoc later if you then try to use dir()...

The reason cd doesn't work, though, is that that is a fully-qualified file name, pointing to a file, NOT a directory. Hence, you can't cd to a file.

indir = 'C: \Users\X\Documents\school';
cd(indir)

would be what you're looking for there, but it is better practice to not change directories willy-nilly, but to use the fully qualified file name to reference the file from your working dirctory...

indir = 'C: \Users\X\Documents\school';
infile = 'Labdata.xlsx';
fqn=fullfile(indir,infile);
...

Now you use the fqn variable to address the file; fullfile builds it with correct punctuation and you don't need to actually change the working directory at all.

[Constance]

Yes that worked! Thank you!