Check e-mails in specific time frame - vba

Question

I need to check items in a folder in a specific time frame.
My code goes through all the mails in the specified folder, but the folder has thousands of mails, so it takes forever.
How do I check the mails only from, for example, 3/16/2015 12:00PM to 3/16/2015 2:00PM?
This is what I have:
Sub ExportToExcel()
Dim appExcel As Excel.Application
Dim wkb As Excel.Workbook
Dim wks As Excel.Worksheet
Dim rng As Excel.Range
Dim workbookFile As String
Dim msg As Outlook.MailItem
Dim nms As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim fld As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim itm As Object
'Folder path and file name of an existing Excel workbook
workbookFile = "C:\Users\OutlookItems.xls"
'Select export folder
Set nms = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set fld = nms.PickFolder
'Handle potential errors with Select Folder dialog box.
If fld Is Nothing Then
MsgBox "There are no mail messages to export", vbOKOnly, _
"Error"
Exit Sub
ElseIf fld.DefaultItemType <> olMailItem Then
MsgBox "There are no mail messages to export", vbOKOnly, _
"Error"
Exit Sub
ElseIf fld.Items.Count = 0 Then
MsgBox "There are no mail messages to export", vbOKOnly, _
"Error"
Exit Sub
End If
' Open and activate Excel workbook.
Set appExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Set wkb = appExcel.Workbooks.Open(workbookFile)
Set wks = wkb.Sheets(1)
wks.Activate
appExcel.Application.Visible = True
Set rng = wks.Range("A1")
'Copy field items in mail folder.
For Each itm In fld.Items
If itm.Class = Outlook.OlObjectClass.olMail Then
Set msg = itm
If InStr(msg.Subject, "Error in WU_Send") > 0 And DateDiff("h", msg.SentOn, Now) <= 2 Then
rng.Offset(0, 4).Value = msg.Body
Set rng = rng.Offset(1, 0)
End If
End If
Next
End Sub
The problem lies in this part:
For Each itm In fld.Items
If itm.Class = Outlook.OlObjectClass.olMail Then
Set msg = itm
If InStr(msg.Subject, "Error in WU_Send") > 0 And DateDiff("h", msg.SentOn, Now) <= 2 Then
How do I look at e-mails between specified hours?

Answer 1

You need to use the Find/FindNext or Restrict methods of the Items class instead of iterating through all items in the folder. For example:
Sub DemoFindNext()
Dim myNameSpace As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim tdystart As Date
Dim tdyend As Date
Dim myAppointments As Outlook.Items
Dim currentAppointment As Outlook.AppointmentItem
Set myNameSpace = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
tdystart = VBA.Format(Now, "Short Date")
tdyend = VBA.Format(Now + 1, "Short Date")
Set myAppointments = myNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderCalendar).Items
Set currentAppointment = myAppointments.Find("[Start] >= """ & tdystart & """ and [Start] <= """ & tdyend & """")
While TypeName(currentAppointment) <> "Nothing"
MsgBox currentAppointment.Subject
Set currentAppointment = myAppointments.FindNext
Wend
End Sub
See the following articles for more information and sample code:
How To: Use Find and FindNext methods to retrieve Outlook mail items from a folder (C#, VB.NET)
How To: Use Restrict method to retrieve Outlook mail items from a folder
Also you may find the AdvancedSearch method of the Application class helpful. The key benefits of using the AdvancedSearch method are listed below:
The search is performed in another thread. You don’t need to run another thread manually since the AdvancedSearch method runs it automatically in the background.
Possibility to search for any item types: mail, appointment, calendar, notes etc. in any location, i.e. beyond the scope of a certain folder. The Restrict and Find/FindNext methods can be applied to a particular Items collection (see the Items property of the Folder class in Outlook).
Full support for DASL queries (custom properties can be used for searching too). You can read more about this in the Filtering article in MSDN. To improve the search performance, Instant Search keywords can be used if Instant Search is enabled for the store (see the IsInstantSearchEnabled property of the Store class).
You can stop the search process at any moment using the Stop method of the Search class.

Answer 2

You could just change the line to:
If InStr(msg.Subject, "Error in WU_Send") > 0 And msg.SentOn > "03/16/2015 12:00 PM" AND msg.SentOn < "03/16/2015 2:00 PM" Then

Answer 3

This specifies the time period.
Option Explicit
Sub RestrictTimePeriod()
Dim nms As Namespace
Dim fld As folder ' Subsequent to 2003 otherwise MAPIFolder
Dim msg As MailItem
Dim filterCriteria As String
Dim filterItems As Items
Dim i As Long
Dim start
Dim dif
Set nms = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set fld = nms.PickFolder
If Not fld Is Nothing Then
start = Now
Debug.Print start
' http://www.jpsoftwaretech.com/use-filters-to-speed-up-outlook-macros/
filterCriteria = "[ReceivedTime] > " & QuoteWrap("2015-03-16 12:00 PM") & _
" And [ReceivedTime] < " & QuoteWrap("2015-03-17 2:00 PM")
Set filterItems = fld.Items.Restrict(filterCriteria)
For i = filterItems.count To 1 Step -1
Set msg = filterItems.Item(i)
Debug.Print msg.Subject
Next
End If
ExitRoutine:
Set nms = Nothing
Set msg = Nothing
Set filterItems = Nothing
Debug.Print Now
dif = (Now - start) * 86400
Debug.Print dif
Debug.Print "Done."
End Sub
Function QuoteWrap(stringToWrap As String, _
Optional charToUse As Long = 39) As String
' http://www.jpsoftwaretech.com/use-filters-to-speed-up-outlook-macros/
' use 34 for double quotes, 39 for apostrophe
QuoteWrap = Chr(charToUse) & stringToWrap & Chr(charToUse)
End Function