Start Octave Script from VBA with a batch file and wait for Octave to finish before continuing with vba - vba

Question

i would like to call an Octave script from VBA with a batch file and passing some arguments to it.
The Octave script creates a .csv file which is needed in the VBA code later on.
The Problem is, that the VBA code doesn't wait for Octave creating the .csv file and i get an error message that the file is not there. So i need a way to wait until Octave has created the file.
Here is my VBA code:
Public Sub LinkOctave(ByVal Projekt As String, ByVal Winddaten As String, ByVal Ak As String, ByVal Typ As String, _
ByVal Anz As Double, ByVal NH As Double, ByVal Netto As Double, _
ByVal StartGW As Double, ByVal EndGW As Double, _
ByVal StartP As Double, ByVal EndP As Double)
Dim PID As Variant
Dim BatchFilePath As String
Dim ProjektBat As String
Dim WinddatenBat As String
Dim AkBat As String
Dim TypBat As String
Dim AnzBat As Double
Dim NHBat As String
Dim NettoBat As String
Dim StartGWBat As String
Dim EndGWBat As String
Dim StartPBat As String
Dim EndPBat As String
ProjektBat = "'" & Projekt & "'"
WinddatenBat = "'" & Winddaten & "'"
AkBat = "'" & Ak & "'"
TypBat = "'" & Typ & "'"
AnzBat = Anz
NHBat = str(NH)
NettoBat = str(Netto)
StartGWBat = str(StartGW)
EndGWBat = str(EndGW)
StartPBat = str(StartP)
EndPBat = str(EndP)
BatchFilePath = "C:\Users\bla\Documents\Octave\PFM\runfctPFM.bat"
PID = Shell(BatchFilePath & " " & ProjektBat & " " & WinddatenBat & " " & AkBat & " " & _
TypBat & " " & AnzBat & " " & NHBat & " " & NettoBat & " " & StartGWBat & " " & _
EndGWBat & " " & StartPBat & " " & EndPBat)
End Sub
I already found the way to do it with wsh.Run like this:
Dim wsh As Object
Set wsh = VBA.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Dim waitOnReturn As Boolean: waitOnReturn = True
Dim windowStyle As Integer: windowStyle = 1
Dim lngErrorCode As Long
lngErrorCode = wsh.Run(BatchFilePath & " " & ProjektBat & " " & WinddatenBat & " " & AkBat & " " & _
TypBat & " " & AnzBat & " " & NHBat & " " & NettoBat & " " & StartGWBat & " " & _
EndGWBat & " " & StartPBat & " " & EndPBat, windowStyle, waitOnReturn)
If lngErrorCode <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Something went wrong with the batch file!"
Exit Sub
End If
But it still doesn't wait for Octave to finish.
What did i wrong? Or is there another solution?
This is the code of the bat file, where i call the octave script:
#echo off
set OCT_HOME=C:\Octave\Octave-5.1.0.0\mingw64\
set "PATH=%OCT_HOME%\bin;%PATH%"
set SCRIPTS_DIR=%~dp0
set ProjektBat=%1
set WinddatenBat=%2
set AkBat=%3
set TypBat=%4
set AnzBat=%5
set NHBat=%6
set NettoBat=%7
set StartGWBat=%8
set EndGWBat=%9
shift /1
set StartPBat=%9
shift /1
set EndPBat=%9
start octave-cli.exe --eval "cd(getenv('SCRIPTS_DIR')); fctPFM(%ProjektBat%, %WinddatenBat%, %AkBat%, %TypBat%, %AnzBat%, %NHBat%, %NettoBat%, %StartGWBat%, %EndGWBat%, %StartPBat%, %EndPBat%); quit;"
Thanks for your support
Cheers

Answer 1

The bat file has a 'start' command in it which according to the Microsoft docs opens a separate command prompt for the command - so its not going to wait for the separate command window to finish.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/start
Note also in windows, you should probably not be calling the octave executables directly, rather use the .bat files that come with it, as they set up expected environment variables in order for octave to run correctly.