# Choose a file interactively

**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/choose-a-file-interactively/10910
**Category:** General Usage
**Created:** [May 15, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/choose-a-file-interactively/10910 "2018-05-15T14:08:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![jacobcvt12](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jacobcvt12/32/2695_2.png) [@jacobcvt12](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jacobcvt12)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2018, 2:08pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/choose-a-file-interactively/10910/1 "2018-05-15T14:08:42Z")

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In R, the function `file.choose()` exists to choose files interactively. This is nice when sharing code with someone who is not a programmer. Is there anything similar in Julia?

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### Author: ![tobias.knopp](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/tobias.knopp/32/7551_2.png) [@tobias.knopp](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/tobias.knopp)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2018, 2:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/choose-a-file-interactively/10910/3 "2018-05-15T14:23:45Z")

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```julia
julia> using Gtk
julia> filename = open_dialog("My Open dialog")

```

thats it.

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### Author: ![Jordan\_Cluts](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jordan_cluts/32/13753_2.png) [@Jordan\_Cluts](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Jordan_Cluts)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2018, 2:49pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/choose-a-file-interactively/10910/4 "2018-05-15T14:49:36Z")

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I had a similar desire and ended up writing a little solution that I had a question about [here](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/qml-filedialog/10125). I wanted something that used the native system dialog and that little code snippet has served me very well.

\*edit: To be clear I did very little of the writing for this snippet. It’s based off the file dialog example in QML.jl. I just tweaked it a bit and converted it to one self-contained solution (code wise atleast, QML.jl obviously needs to be installed).

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<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![jacobcvt12](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/jacobcvt12/32/2695_2.png) [@jacobcvt12](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/jacobcvt12)
#### Post date: [May 15, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/choose-a-file-interactively/10910/5 "2018-05-15T17:12:25Z")

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Thanks for your help everyone!