Setting working directory to Documents folder in user profile on Windows 7

I would like to set the working directory to the Documents folder of the currently logged-on user on Windows 7 machines. I would like to do this in startup.m

I imagine something like:

username = getusername;

cd C:\Users\username\Documents

What would be the correct syntax or code in startup.m for this?

Thanks.

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

I saw this function on the File Exchange, http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/32523-getusername/content/getUserName.m, which pretty much does what you want in terms of getting the user name. With that, you can build a command string to change directories, and then evaluate that command

% get the user name
userName = getUserName();

% build the command string
command   = ['cd C:\Users\' userName '\Documents'];

 % evaluate the command
  eval(command);

Try the above and see what happens!

[Stephen]

When I used this code I got the following message in the command window in Matlab:

Warning: Executing startup failed in matlabrc. MATLAB:UndefinedFunction Undefined function or variable 'getUserName'.

[Geoff Hayes]

Stephen - you need to get the code from the link and paste it in your startup.m file (or store the file elsewhere).

[Geoff Hayes]

Or since you are using Windows, just try

 userName = getenv('username');

[Sean de Wolski]

No need for eval!

cd(fullfile('c:',username,'documents'))