# DelimitedFiles not working

**URL:** <https://discourse.julialang.org/t/delimitedfiles-not-working/23226>\
**Category:** New to Julia\
**Created:** [April 16, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/delimitedfiles-not-working/23226 "2019-04-16T22:38:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ibrasour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a9a28c/32.png) [@ibrasour](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/ibrasour)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 10:38pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/delimitedfiles-not-working/23226/1 "2019-04-16T22:38:48Z")

</div>

hi, im new to julia. coming from matlab.

im just trying the language out, just playing with it before jumping in completely.  
i cant get DelimitedFiles to work, to simply read a txt file.  
When i type:

```julia
using DelimitedFiles
Coor=readdlm("test.txt")
print(Coor)

```

i get:

```julia
LoadError: ArgumentError: Cannot open 'test.txt': not a file

in expression starting at untitled-8ead38e87ae54c024af70d734f3fca9a:3

#readdlm_auto#9(::Base.Iterators.Pairs{Union{},Union{},Tuple{},NamedTuple{(),Tuple{}}}, ::Function, ::String, ::Char, ::Type, ::Char, ::Bool) at DelimitedFiles.jl:233

readdlm_auto at DelimitedFiles.jl:233 [inlined]

#readdlm#5 at DelimitedFiles.jl:172 [inlined]

readdlm at DelimitedFiles.jl:172 [inlined]

#readdlm#3 at DelimitedFiles.jl:118 [inlined]

readdlm(::String) at DelimitedFiles.jl:118

top-level scope at none:0

```

the file “test.txt” is a simple matrix 4x4

btw, im on linux mint, atom ide with junolab

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rdeits](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/rdeits/32/286_2.png) [@rdeits](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/rdeits)\
**Post date:** [April 16, 2019, 11:01pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/delimitedfiles-not-working/23226/2 "2019-04-16T23:01:42Z")

</div>

Welcome!

That error just means that your file is not located in Julia’s current working directory (whatever directory the `julia` command was run from). You can check Julia’s working directory with:

```julia
pwd()

```

To open a file in some other directory, you can either use its full path:

```julia
readdlm("/path/to/your/files/test.txt")

```

or you can change the working directory:

```julia
cd("/path/to/your/files")
readdlm("test.txt")

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KajWiik](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/julialang/user_avatar/discourse.julialang.org/kajwiik/32/199_2.png) [@KajWiik](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/KajWiik)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2019, 7:44am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/delimitedfiles-not-working/23226/3 "2019-04-17T07:44:39Z")

</div>

> [@rdeits](#):
>
> cd(“/path/to/your/files”)

In REPL

```julia
; cd /path/to/your/files

```

works also.