Excel VBA Code to Open a Text File. Following is the code Syntax to open a Text file: Open [file Path] For [mode] As [#FileNumber]. With the Above code Syntax, as you can see, there are 3 parameters. Read/Parse text file line by line in VBA. Ask Question 49. Preserving “columns” when writing from a text file to excel using VBA.
Import Text File with Excel VBA In Excel one of the cool features is that you can import files csv, txt, mdb into Excel pretty quickly and relatively easily, if of course you have some VBA. I once answered a post online where the person wanted to import text files but the entire contents of the text file had to go into once cell.
I was not sure this could be done but upon research it surely can be done. I created a list of the files that I wanted to be imported into my Excel file. Then I set up a link to Microsoft's Scripting Runtime library. Here is how to do that. Press Alt F11. Goto Tools - References.
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In this article I am going to teach you in details – How to deal with Text Files in Excel VBA. As explained above, Text files are very useful while developing any tool or add-in in Excel where you want to store some configuration data – in order to run your program or add-in. Using Excel file to store such data will make the program very slow. I don’t need to explain much – why Text file would be a better option, rather you will find it by yourself at the end of this article. So let’s start then in a logical order Opening a file reading a file writing into a file.
Topics covered in this Article In this article, following topics are covered. Click on the below links to directly jump to that section. Excel VBA Code to Open a Text File Following is the code Syntax to open a Text file: Open file Path For mode As #FileNumber With the Above code Syntax, as you can see, there are 3 parameters. file Path mode and #FileNumber So, lets discuss about these three parameters – who are they and what role do they play in opening the text file: What is File Name This is the path of the Text file which is going to be opened. What is Mode in Open Text File VBA Code As the name suggests, its the control which you want to specify before opening it. There are mainly 3 types of controls or modes possible – Input, Output and Append.
Lets discuss one by one these 3 modes Input Mode This mode is used for READ ONLY control. It means, if you open a Text file in Input mode, then you can not write anything in it.
All you can do is – read all the content inside the text file. Therefore you can say. This a read only mode. Output Mode If your text file is open in this mode, then you can write content in it. But what is important here to note is: In this mode, your existing file gets overwritten. This means, if there are content already in there in the text file then it will be replaced by the new data which you are trying to save. Therefore, be careful while choosing the mode of the file while opening it.
Now you must be thinking – Then how to append content in an existing text file without overwriting it. Therefore the next mode – Append Mode. Append Mode As the name suggests, this mode allow you to append the new content at the end of the text file. It does not overwrite the existing content in the text file. So now we have an idea about all these 3 modes. It will be more clear when we use them in the below examples.
Now Let’s learn about our second parameter – #FileNumber #FileNumber When Text files are opened then windows recognize them by a unique integer value. Valid range of Integers for this parameter is between 1 to 511. As I mentioned above, it should be a unique integer, it is challenging for you to give a fixed number here in case you are dealing with multiple text files. To overcome this challenge you can use a function called FreeFile What is FreeFile Function? FreeFile function returns a unique integer value which represents the file number of the file you opened.
This way always a unique (or a FREE File Number – which is not used already) file-Number is assigned automatically by this function. Now you know about – How to open a Text file. Let’s see some examples and learn how to use it.
Sample VBA Code to Open a Text File Sub OpenTextFile Dim sFilePath As String Dim fileNumber As Integer ' Full path of the textFile which you want ' to open. SFilePath = 'C: Users Vishwa Desktop LEM.txt' ' Assign a unique file numner fileNumber = FreeFile ' Below statement will open the ' above text file in output mode Open sFilePath For Output As #fileNumber End Sub VBA code to create a new TextFile If the file name provided in the File Path provided while writing Open statement, like above, does not exists, then Open statement, automatically creates a TextFile with the same name in the same directory. Thus, using the same Open statement, you can create a new TextFile as well. You don’t have to use a different statement to create a new file. Here is a sample code Read the commented lines written inside the code.
I have tried explaining them there as well. Sub createANewtextFile Dim sFilePath As String Dim fileNumber As Integer ' In the above path C: Users Vishwa Desktop - exists ' But on the desktop - LEM.txt file does not exist sFilePath = 'C: Users Vishwa Desktop LEM.txt' ' Assign a unique file numner fileNumber = FreeFile ' in this case, below statement, will ' create a new file with name LEM.txt ' as soon as below statement gets executed ' And also, it is open to write something Open sFilePath For Output As #fileNumber End Sub Note: Only File Name should not exists in order to create a new file. Directories or folders specified must exists.
If not, file Not Found Error will be thrown./fusiontext VBA Code to Write content in to Text File Basically there are two statements using which you can write content in to a text file in excel VBA: Write or Print. Input Data1, 2, 3,: This is the data which you want to write in the Textfile. You can write many different kind of data in each line. Each of these data will be written in textfile in a single line separated by comma.
Important to note: Based on the type of the data which you put in InputData 1, 2 etc. Write statement does some common changes while putting them in to TextFile. If the data is Date Type: Then date value is closed within hash sign. Date – 2010-10-13 will be written in TextFile as #2010-10-13# String type data: They are stored in double quotes. For example: Input Data – Vishwamitra Mishra will be stored as “Vishwamitra Mishra”.
Integer, Double, Long etc: They will be written as they are. There is not formatting done before they are written in text file. Example: Let’s take an example. Export the following table in excel to a Text file using Write statement.
From the above excel cells, I will start reading one by one every column values of each row and write them in Text File. Important to note: Unlike Write statement, this does not change any of the formatting of the data for Date or String type. It just put them as they are. Values of difference columns are not separated by Comma. Rather they are separated by space(s) depending on how many spaces required to make the textfile in a printable format. Example: To write Text File using PRINT Statement Let’s take the same example as above.
Now we will export the same table from excel to a Text file using Print statement. Important to know There is another – in fact important – difference between Write and Print statement. That you will realize while reading above two TextFiles – 1. Written using Write Statement 2. Written using Print Statement. This is a hint for now. It will be explained in detail in the next article, where we will be talking all about reading a TextFile.
In all the above examples of writing to a text box, I have used the File Open mode as Output. This means, every time you run the code, all the content of the text file will be replaced with the new one. Therefore, let’s take an example, of how can we append to the existing content in a text file using write or print statement. VBA Code to Append to Text File The whole trick lies in to the mode you open your text file during your VBA program. Why I say that, because you do not need to change anything else in the Write or Print statements in order to append and not to replace. Isn’t it simple?
So the complete VBA code remains same as it is there for replacing the whole content – except changing the open mode – from Output to Append. What these modes are – They are explained in the beginning of the article.