Using VBA, how can I:
test whether a file exists, and if so,
delete it?
1.) Check here. Basically do this:
Function FileExists(ByVal FileToTest As String) As Boolean
FileExists = (Dir(FileToTest) <> "")
End Function
I'll leave it to you to figure out the various error handling needed but these are among the error handling things I'd be considering:
Check for an empty string being passed.
Check for a string containing characters illegal in a file name/path
2.) How To Delete a File. Look at this. Basically use the Kill command but you need to allow for the possibility of a file being read-only. Here's a function for you:
Sub DeleteFile(ByVal FileToDelete As String)
If FileExists(FileToDelete) Then 'See above
' First remove readonly attribute, if set
SetAttr FileToDelete, vbNormal
' Then delete the file
Kill FileToDelete
End If
End Sub
Again, I'll leave the error handling to you and again these are the things I'd consider:
Should this behave differently for a directory vs. a file? Should a user have to explicitly have to indicate they want to delete a directory?
Do you want the code to automatically reset the read-only attribute or should the user be given some sort of indication that the read-only attribute is set?
EDIT: Marking this answer as community wiki so anyone can modify it if need be.
An alternative way to code Brettski's answer, with which I otherwise agree entirely, might be
With New FileSystemObject
If .FileExists(yourFilePath) Then
.DeleteFile yourFilepath
End If
End With
Same effect but fewer (well, none at all) variable declarations.
The FileSystemObject is a really useful tool and well worth getting friendly with. Apart from anything else, for text file writing it can actually sometimes be faster than the legacy alternative, which may surprise a few people. (In my experience at least, YMMV).
I'll probably get flamed for this, but what is the point of testing for existence if you are just going to delete it? One of my major pet peeves is an app throwing an error dialog with something like "Could not delete file, it does not exist!"
On Error Resume Next
aFile = "c:\file_to_delete.txt"
Kill aFile
On Error Goto 0
return Len(Dir$(aFile)) > 0 ' Make sure it actually got deleted.
If the file doesn't exist in the first place, mission accomplished!
The following can be used to test for the existence of a file, and then to delete it.
Dim aFile As String
aFile = "c:\file_to_delete.txt"
If Len(Dir$(aFile)) > 0 Then
Kill aFile
End If
In VB its normally Dir to find the directory of the file. If it's not blank then it exists and then use Kill to get rid of the file.
test = Dir(Filename)
If Not test = "" Then
Kill (Filename)
End If
set a reference to the Scripting.Runtime library and then use the FileSystemObject:
Dim fso as New FileSystemObject, aFile as File
if (fso.FileExists("PathToFile")) then
aFile = fso.GetFile("PathToFile")
aFile.Delete
End if
Here's a tip: are you re-using the file name, or planning to do something that requires the deletion immediately?
No?
You can get VBA to fire the command DEL "C:\TEMP\scratchpad.txt" /F from the command prompt asynchronously using VBA.Shell:
Shell "DEL " & chr(34) & strPath & chr(34) & " /F ", vbHide
Note the double-quotes (ASCII character 34) around the filename: I'm assuming that you've got a network path, or a long file name containing spaces.
If it's a big file, or it's on a slow network connection, fire-and-forget is the way to go.
Of course, you never get to see if this worked or not; but you resume your VBA immediately, and there are times when this is better than waiting for the network.
You can set a reference to the Scripting.Runtime library and then use the FileSystemObject. It has a DeleteFile method and a FileExists method.
See the MSDN article here.
A shorter version of the first solution that worked for me:
Sub DeleteFile(ByVal FileToDelete As String)
If (Dir(FileToDelete) <> "") Then
' First remove readonly attribute, if set
SetAttr FileToDelete, vbNormal
' Then delete the file
Kill FileToDelete
End If
End Sub
Related
I have been using folder browser for VBA, I could paste the code of it, but bottom line is that I get returned file name as a string.
Is there any way to access drawing properties (i.e number of layouts) without open?
Public Sub TestFileDialog()
dwgname = FileBrowseOpen("C:", "*", ".dwg", 1) 'dwgname is typeof string
End Sub
Its only the first step (use of FileBrowseOpen function is shown, but also i can use FolderBrowse and collect all .dwg inside of folder),actually i had in mind to batch export all layouts of selected .dwgs to currenty open one. Is there any chance for that?
To effectively read a .dwg file you'll need to open AutoCAD, otherwise the information is not accessible. Some properties may be, such as author, but not number of layouts...
But you can use AutoCAD Console (accoreconsole.exe) to run a headless AutoCAD and use APIs to read any information you need. This is really fast for reading lot's of files and the user will not see it running (but it needs to be installed anyway).
http://aucache.autodesk.com/au2012/sessionsFiles/3338/3323/handout_3338_CP3338-Handout.pdf
you could stay in VBA and use ObjectDBX
it leads to a very similar approach as accoreconsole.exe on in .NET does, i.e you won't see any drawing open in UI since it works on the database itself
It requires adding library reference (Tools->References) to "AutoCAD/ObjectDBX Common XX.Y Type Library", where "XX.Y" is "19.0" for AutoCAD 2014
a minimal functioning code is
Sub main()
Dim myAxDbDoc As AxDbDocument
Dim FullFileName As String
FullFileName = "C:\..\mydrawing.dwg" '<== put here the full name of the file to be opened
Set myAxDbDoc = AxDb_SetDrawing(FullFileName)
MsgBox myAxDbDoc.Layers.Count
End Sub
Function AxDb_SetDrawing(FullFileName As String) As AxDbDocument
Dim DBXDoc As AxDbDocument
Set DBXDoc = Application.GetInterfaceObject("ObjectDBX.AxDbDocument.19") '<== place correct AutoCAD version numeber ("19" works for AutoCAD 2014)
On Error Resume Next
DBXDoc.Open FullFileName
If Err <> 0 Then
MsgBox "Couldn't open" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & FullFileName, vbOKOnly + vbCritical, "AxDB_SetDrawing"
Else
Set AxDb_SetDrawing = DBXDoc
End If
On Error GoTo 0
End Function
Still, you must have one AutoCAD session running from which make this sub run! But you should have it since talked about "currently open" drawing
I'm making a console application and I want to see what files is in a folder
For Each foundFile As String In My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles("c:\users\zac\desktop\booked vehicle\requested\")
Console.WriteLine(foundFile)
Next
after using this code and find that the folder is empty I need an If statement that say's
If foundfile has no files then
tell user no files found
end if
but I don't know how to write this so Visual Basic understands.
Load the files into a variable then check the count.
Dim files = My.Computer.FileSystem.GetFiles("c:\users\zac\desktop\booked vehicle\requested\")
If files.Count = 0 Then
'tell user no files
Else
For Each file In files
Console.WriteLine(file)
Next
End If
FileSystem.GetFiles() returns a collection of file name strings. As OneFineDay showed, you can use the collection's Count property to know if any files were found.
The downside of using FileSystem.GetFile() is that it has to search the entire folder before then returning the entire list of filenames. If you are searching large folders and speed is an issue, consider using Directory.EnumerateFiles() instead. That way, you can output a message if no file was found, otherwise loop throuh the list of found files. For example:
Dim files = Directory.EnumerateFiles("c:\users\zac\desktop\booked vehicle\requested\").GetEnumerator()
If files.MoveNext Then
' files were found
Do
Console.WriteLine(files.Current)
Loop Until Not files.MoveNext
Else
' no files were found
End If
I personally would use Linq to accomplish this. It's very quick and efficient to use in this case. I put the Console.ReadLine() at the end to show the files, you can remove this if need to be. Also you can change the Console.WriteLine to not include the string (s) if you don't want to. The s was declared if you want to show the files and also to see if there are any files. As I said, this was for my viewing to see the files. Straight to the point!
Dim s As String = String.Join(Environment.NewLine, New DirectoryInfo("YOUR DIRECTORY").GetFiles().[Select](Function(file) file.Name).ToArray)
Console.WriteLine(If(s.Length > 0, s, "No files found!"))
Console.ReadLine()
I am looking for some expert insight concerning recursion within vbscript.
From various examples found online I created the following code, which works by the way.
http://saltwetbytes.wordpress.com/2010/05/04/vbscript-grabbing-subfolders-recursively/
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee198872.aspx
Function GetAllSubFolders(RootFolder, ByRef pSubfoldersList)
Dim fso, SubFolder, root
Set fso = CreateObject("scripting.filesystemobject")
set root = fso.getfolder(RootFolder)
For Each Subfolder in root.SubFolders
If pSubFoldersList = "" Then
pSubFoldersList = Subfolder.Path
Else
pSubFoldersList = pSubFoldersList & "|" & Subfolder.Path
End If
GetAllSubFolders Subfolder, pSubFoldersList
Next
GetAllSubFolders = pSubFoldersList
End Function
My question is: Is this a good aproach when it comes to creating a recursive function (using a parameter for storing previous results)?
I prefer putting this in a (self-contained) "function", so the procedure returns the subsubfolders as the result. But most of the examples found use a "sub" I always get confused when it comes to "sub" vs "function" (I understand when you want a procedure that needs to return something you use a function, imho this seems to be the case in this example)
But I could also use a "sub" and just simple reference the output parameter (ByRef pSubfoldersList)
So what is the best practise or is it better to use a whole different approach all together?
(the function is this examples is also very slow compared to [shell.exec "cmd /c dir RootFolder /s /b /a:d"], I guess this is a side effect from the recursion or maybe the FSO is just really slow?)
whether it is good practice to pass the result in a recursive function, i don't really know, you can test this out by doing it this way and the other and comparing the time and memory taken. Haven't tried this with your version cause i get the error "Microsoft VBScript runtime error: Permission denied" if I start from the root of the c:
The real problem with your solution is the concatenation, that takes time because the in your case BIG variable gets created every time. Better were to store the result in an array or in the case of VBscript in a dictionary. I'll post an example.
What the difference between sub and function concerns: you are right about the main difference, the returning of a result but that is optional so I always use functions, the only drawback is that if you don't assign the value to a variable and you use more than 2 parameters you have to use "call". When you use your approach with ByRef you could also define the var in the main global context, it's perhaps less encapsulated but more readable and you can more easily reuse or debug the results.
What the speed concerns: vbscript is VERY slow in file handling, if you used WMI perhaps you could speed up a bit but not much, indeed for some operations it is better to shell out and let the OS take care of it. I now program in Ruby and there most jobs like this you can write in one line of code and it is much faster.
Speaking about fast, if your only purpose is to have a list of your files, get to know the tool "search everything", in less than a second you can search millions of files, if you don't know it check it out !
Here is an example using the dictionary
set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set filelist = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
iCount = 0
ShowSubfolders fso.GetFolder("C:\Documents and Settings\peter")
PrintFilelist(filelist)
'--- ---
Function ShowSubFolders(Folder)
For Each Subfolder in Folder.SubFolders
on error resume next
wscript.echo Subfolder.Path 'show some progress
Set fFolder = fso.GetFolder(Subfolder.Path)
if err.number <> 0 then wscript.echo err.description
For Each File in fFolder.Files
iCount = iCount+1
filelist.add iCount, File.Path
Next
ShowSubFolders Subfolder
Next
End Function
'--- ---'
Function PrintFilelist(ByRef dic)
Dim index, allKeys, allItems, msg
allKeys = dic.Keys
' allKeys is an array to all the keys
allItems = dic.Items
' allItems is an array to all the items
wscript.echo "There are " & dic.Count & " number of files in the dictionary"
For index = 0 To dic.Count-1
' Notice, dictionary range goes from 0 to count-1
wscript.echo "Key=" & allKeys(index) & " Filename=" & allItems(index)
Next
End Function
The following code works for DOCX files, but gives "Access Denied" on DOC files:
Public Sub SaveGraded()
oldnamepath = ActiveDocument.FullName
oldname = GetFileName(ActiveDocument.Name)
oldExtension = getextension(ActiveDocument.FullName)
newname = oldname & "_GRADED" & "." & oldExtension
ActiveDocument.SaveAs filename:=newname
Kill oldnamepath
End Sub
Indeed, it's one of those weird things with Word, it'll hold a .doc file open exclusively much longer than a .docx.
You can use a loop to continually test delete until it works - don't use Kill for this since you can't trap it, use VBScript FileSystemObject.DeleteFile (str Name, bool Force), which is more reliable anyway - or you can use ActiveDocument.Close and reopen it. However I've noticed that even this doesn't always work and you sometimes have to follow that by Application.Quit; goodbye script execution unless you're automating it from an external application, which is what I do.
I wrote myself a little downloading application so that I could easily grab a set of files from my server and put them all onto a new pc with a clean install of Windows, without actually going on the net. Unfortunately I'm having problems creating the folder I want to put them in and am unsure how to go about it.
I want my program to download the apps to program files\any name here\
So basically I need a function that checks if a folder exists, and if it doesn't it creates it.
If Not System.IO.Directory.Exists(YourPath) Then
System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(YourPath)
End If
Under System.IO, there is a class called Directory.
Do the following:
If Not Directory.Exists(path) Then
Directory.CreateDirectory(path)
End If
It will ensure that the directory is there.
Try the System.IO.DirectoryInfo class.
The sample from MSDN:
Imports System
Imports System.IO
Public Class Test
Public Shared Sub Main()
' Specify the directories you want to manipulate.
Dim di As DirectoryInfo = New DirectoryInfo("c:\MyDir")
Try
' Determine whether the directory exists.
If di.Exists Then
' Indicate that it already exists.
Console.WriteLine("That path exists already.")
Return
End If
' Try to create the directory.
di.Create()
Console.WriteLine("The directory was created successfully.")
' Delete the directory.
di.Delete()
Console.WriteLine("The directory was deleted successfully.")
Catch e As Exception
Console.WriteLine("The process failed: {0}", e.ToString())
End Try
End Sub
End Class
Since the question didn't specify .NET, this should work in VBScript or VB6.
Dim objFSO, strFolder
strFolder = "C:\Temp"
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
If Not objFSO.FolderExists(strFolder) Then
objFSO.CreateFolder strFolder
End If
Try this: Directory.Exists(TheFolderName) and Directory.CreateDirectory(TheFolderName)
(You may need: Imports System.IO)
VB.NET? System.IO.Directory.Exists(string path)
Directory.CreateDirectory() should do it.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.io.directory.createdirectory(VS.71).aspx
Also, in Vista, you probably cannot write into C: directly unless you run it as an admin, so you might just want to bypass that and create the dir you want in a sub-dir of C: (which i'd say is a good practice to be followed anyways. -- its unbelievable how many people just dump crap onto C:
Hope that helps.
(imports System.IO)
if Not Directory.Exists(Path) then
Directory.CreateDirectory(Path)
end if
If Not Directory.Exists(somePath) then
Directory.CreateDirectory(somePath)
End If
You should try using the File System Object or FSO. There are many methods belonging to this object that check if folders exist as well as creating new folders.
I see how this would work, what would be the process to create a dialog box that allows the user name the folder and place it where you want to.
Cheers
Just do this:
Dim sPath As String = "Folder path here"
If (My.Computer.FileSystem.DirectoryExists(sPath) = False) Then
My.Computer.FileSystem.CreateDirectory(sPath + "/<Folder name>")
Else
'Something else happens, because the folder exists
End If
I declared the folder path as a String (sPath) so that way if you do use it multiple times it can be changed easily but also it can be changed through the program itself.
Hope it helps!
-nfell2009