Excel VBA - PDF file properties - vba

Question

first-time poster but long-time fan for finding VBA and SQL solutions on this site. I have a VBA subroutine that is designed to find all PDF files within a directory that the user designates. The program does recursions through all subfolders and generates a spreadsheet as follows:
Column A: complete file path ("C:\Users\Records\NumberOne.pdf")
Column B: folder path containing the file ("C:\Users\Records\")
Column C: the file name itself ("NumberOne.pdf")
Up to this point, the program (code below) works flawlessly. I've used it to search a directory with over 50,000 PDF files, and it successfully generates the spreadsheet every time (total elapsed time for the program is usually 5-10 minutes in large directories).
The problem is that I want to add Column D to capture the date that the PDF file was created. I have Googled this and labored over it for hours, trying techniques like FSO.DateCreated and so forth, and nothing has worked. If FSO.DateCreated is what I need, I'm not sure where to insert it in my subroutine to make it work. Usually I get an error that the object does not support that property or method. Does anybody happen to know where I can insert the proper code for my program to find the date each PDF was created and drop it into Column D on my output spreadsheet?
Sub GetFiles()
'-- RUNS AN UNLIMITED RECURSION SEARCH THROUGH A TARGETED FOLDER AND FINDS ALL PDF FILES WITHIN
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
Dim j As Long
Dim ThisEntry As String
Dim strDir As String
Dim FSO As Object
Dim strFolder As String
Dim strName As String
Dim DateCreated As Date '--(Possibly String?)
Dim strArr(1 To 1048576, 1 To 1) As String, i As Long
Dim fldr As FileDialog
'-- OPEN DIALOG BOX TO SELECT DIRECTORY THE USER WISHES TO SEARCH
Set fldr = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
With fldr
.Title = "Select the directory you wish to search"
.AllowMultiSelect = False
If .Show <> -1 Then
Exit Sub
Set fldr = Nothing
Else
strDir = .SelectedItems(1) & "\"
End If
End With
'-- LOOK FOR RECORDS WORKSHEET; IF IT DOES NOT EXIST, CREATE IT; IF IT DOES EXIST, CLEAR CONTENTS
If Not (wsExists("records")) Then
Worksheets.Add
With ActiveSheet
.Name = "records"
End With
Set ws = ActiveSheet
Else
Sheets("records").Activate
Range("A1:IV1").EntireColumn.Delete
Set ws = ActiveSheet
End If
'-- SET SEARCH PARAMETERS
Let strName = Dir$(strDir & "\" & "*.pdf")
Do While strName <> vbNullString
Let i = i + 1
Let strArr(i, 1) = strDir & strName
Let strName = Dir$()
Loop
'-- UNLIMITED RECURSIONS THROUGH SUBFOLDERS
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Call recurseSubFolders(FSO.GetFolder(strDir), strArr(), i)
Set FSO = Nothing
'-- CREATE COLUMN HEADERS ON OUTPUT WORKSHEET
With ws
Range("A1").Value = "AbsolutePath"
Range("B1").Value = "FolderPath"
Range("C1").Value = "FileName"
Range("D1").Value = "DateCreated"
End With
If i > 0 Then
ws.Range("A2").Resize(i).Value = strArr
End If
lr = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row
For i = 1 To lr
ThisEntry = Cells(i, 1)
'-- EXTRACT FOLDER PATH AND FILE NAME FROM STRING
For j = Len(ThisEntry) To 1 Step -1
If Mid(ThisEntry, j, 1) = Application.PathSeparator Then
Cells(i, 2) = Left(ThisEntry, j)
Cells(i, 3) = Mid(ThisEntry, j + 1)
Exit For
End If
Next j
Next i
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
End Sub
----------
Private Sub recurseSubFolders(ByRef Folder As Object, _
ByRef strArr() As String, _
ByRef i As Long)
Dim SubFolder As Object
Dim strName As String
For Each SubFolder In Folder.SubFolders
Let strName = Dir$(SubFolder.Path & "\" & "*.pdf")
Do While strName <> vbNullString
Let i = i + 1
Let strArr(i, 1) = SubFolder.Path & "\" & strName
Let strName = Dir$()
Loop
Call recurseSubFolders(SubFolder, strArr(), i)
Next
End Sub

Answer 1

You need to get the file with GetFile before you can access the DateCreated.
Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set f = fs.GetFile(myFileName)
str = f.DateCreated
MsgBox (str)

Answer 2

Your code is fine (beside some issues with indentation). I just added the instruction to get the creation date from the file system, as you can see below:
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
For i = 1 To lr
ThisEntry = Cells(i, 1)
'-- EXTRACT FOLDER PATH AND FILE NAME FROM STRING
For j = Len(ThisEntry) To 1 Step -1
If Mid(ThisEntry, j, 1) = Application.PathSeparator Then
Cells(i, 2) = Left(ThisEntry, j)
Cells(i, 3) = Mid(ThisEntry, j + 1)
Cells(i, 4) = FSO.GetFile(ThisEntry).DateCreated
Exit For
End If
Next j
Next i
I don't know why you weren't able to use the FSO object, but I believe it can be because few lines below you set it to nothing, so I instantiated it again before the first For cycle:
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Hope this helps,
The Macro Guru

Answer 3

FileSystem.FileDateTime(inputfilepath) returns a variant or date of when the file was last created or modified.