Excel vba file get

The FileSystemObject VBA GetFile function will return a File object on which you can run several methods (Copy, Delete, Move, OpenAsTextStream) and obtain file properties (e.g. Date Created, Size, Type etc. see more below).

VBA FileSystemObject Methods

• BuildPath
• CopyFile
• CopyFolder
• CreateFolder
• CreateTextFile
• DeleteFile
• DeleteFolder
• DriveExists
• FileExists
• FolderExists
• GetAbsolutePathName
• GetBaseName
• GetDrive
• GetDriveName
• GetExtensionName
• GetFile
• GetFileName
• GetFolder
• GetParentFolderName
• GetSpecialFolder
• GetTempName
• MoveFile
• MoveFolder
• OpenTextFile

VBA GetFile Syntax

fso.GetFile( path )

path
The path to the file for which a File object is to be returned.

VBA GetFile Examples

Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Set f = fso.GetFile("C:SrcHello.txt") 'Return the File object

'Now we can obtain various properties of the File
Debug.Print f.DateCreated 'Date when file was created
Debug.Print f.Drive 'Result: "C:" - the drive of the file path
Debug.Print f.Name 'Result: "Hello.txt" - name of the file
Debug.Print f.ParentFolder 'Result: "Hello.txt" - name of the file
Debug.Print f.Path 'Result: "Hello.txt" - name of the file
Debug.Print f.ShortName 'Returns short name of file with 8.3 naming convention
Debug.Print f.ShortPath 'Returns short path to file with 8.3 naming convention
Debug.Print f.Size 'Size of file in bytes
Debug.Print f.Type 'Result: "Text Document" - type of the file

'We can also run several basic file operations on the file
f.Copy "C:NewFolderNewName.txt" 'Copy file
f.Move "C:NewFolder" 'Move the file to new destination
Set ts = f.OpenAsTextStream(ForReading, TristateUseDefault) 'Open file as text stream for read write or append
f.Delete 'Delete the fil

This tutorial will demonstrate how to use the GetFolder and GetFile methods of the FileSystemObject.

Get Folder and File Properties with VBA FileSystemObject

The GetFolder method returns a Folder object corresponding to the folder in a specified path and lets you access its properties. The GetFile method does the same with the file specified.

Set VBA Reference

First, when using FileSystemObjects, you may have to set a reference to the VB script run-time library: open the Visual Basic Editor (ALT+F11), select Tools > References from the drop-down menu and tick the check-box of ‘Microsoft Scripting Runtime’.

FileSystemObject

Second, you must create the FileSystemObject:

Dim FSO As New FileSystemObject
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Now you have access to GetFolder, and the other FileSystemObject Methods.

Use of GetFolder Method

After specifying the folder you want to access

Set fld = FSO.GetFolder("C:Src")

you can copy the folder:

fld.Copy "C:NewFolder"

move the folder:

fld.Move "C:NewFolder"

delete the folder:

fld.Delete

or create a new text file in the folder:

fld.CreateTextFile “NewTextFile.txt"

By using this method, you get access to the folder’s properties such as its attributes (fld.Attributes), the date and time when it was created (fld.DateCreated), last accessed (fld.DateLastAccessed), last modified (fld.DateLastModified), its drive’s letter (fld.Drive), its name and short name (fld.Name, fld.ShortName), its path and short path (fld.Path, fld.ShortPath), its size (fld.Size), its type (fld.Type), its parent folder (fld.ParentFolder), check whether it is a root folder (fld.IsRootFolder) or you can loop through, count, etc. its files (fld.Files) or subfolders (fld.SubFolders).

Putting this all together in a procedure would look like this:

Sub FSOGetFolder()
    Dim FSO As New FileSystemObject
    Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Set fld = FSO.GetFolder("C:Src")

    Debug.Print fld.DateCreated
    Debug.Print fld.Drive
    Debug.Print fld.Name
    Debug.Print fld.ParentFolder
    Debug.Print fld.Path
    Debug.Print fld.ShortPath
    Debug.Print fld.Size
    Debug.Print fld.Files.Count
    Debug.Print fld.Type

    For Each fold In fld.SubFolders
        Debug.Print fold.Name
    Next fold

    For Each fil In fld.Files
        Debug.Print fil.Name
    Next fil

End Sub

Please note that you can press Ctrl + G to see the result of Debug.Print in the VBA immediate window.

GetParentFolderName Method

Alternatively to the above mentioned way, you can access a folder’s parent folder’s name by using this code:

Dim FSO As New FileSystemObject
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") 

ParentFold= FSO.GetParentFolderName("C:ParentTestTest")

ParentFold will be in this case “C:ParentTest”.

Please note that this method will not resolve the path, nor does it check for the existence of the specified path.

GetSpecialFolder Method

With the GetSpecialFolder method, by passing 0, 1 or 2 as an argument, you can get your Windows folder path (with files installed by the Windows operating system), your system folder path (with libraries, fonts, and device drivers) and temporary folder path (the folder that is used for storing temporary files), respectively.

Sub FSOGetSpecialFolder()
    Dim FSO As New FileSystemObject
    Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

    Debug.Print FSO.GetSpecialFolder(0) ‘Result can be: C:WindowsSystem32

End Sub

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GetFile Method

You can use the GetFile method in a very similar way as the GetFolder method. After specifying the file you want to access

Set fil = FSO.GetFile("C:SrcTest.xlsx")

you can copy the file:

fil.Copy "C:Dst"

move the file:

fil.Move "C:Dst"

delete the file:

fil.Delete

or open it as a TextStream object:

fil.OpenAsTextStream

The file’s properties such as its attributes, the date and time when it was created, last accessed or last modified, its drive’s letter, name and short name, path and short path, size, type and its parent folder can be accessed the same way as described at the GetFolder method.

Macro Objective

Our objective is to write a simple macro that prompts the user for a file using a traditional “file open” dialog box.  With this information, we will open the file in the background, copy a range of data, paste it into our active worksheet, then close the user-selected file.

Open the VBA Editor to Start Writing Code

Begin by opening the Visual Basic Editor by pressing ALT-F11 on the keyboard.

The process of presenting a dialog box to open files can be accomplished by accessing a built-in method of the Application object.  The method is called GetOpenFilename.

To use the GetOpenFilename method in a macro, start a new procedure and enter the following code.

Sub Get_Data_From_File()
	Application.GetOpenFilename
End Sub

That’s it!

To test, run the macro to watch as Excel presents us with the Open dialog box.

Notice that the title of the dialog box is “Open” and the default file type filter is to display all file types.

These are customizable options.

If we cancel the macro or select a file and click Open, nothing happens.

This is because the purpose of the GetOpenFilename method is to capture the name of a selected file; nothing more.  The act of opening the file would need to be performed by a separate piece of code.

To make this method useful, we will store the selected file in a variable then use the variable in an Open method to perform the file open operation.

Customizing the GetOpenFilename Method

The syntax for the GetOpenFilename method is:

GetOpenFilename( FileFilter, FilterIndex, Title, ButtonText, MultiSelect)

There are several customizable options with the GetOpenFilename method.

• FileFilter –defines the pattern by which files are filtered. If you only wish to display text files (files with a .TXT or .CSV extension) you would define the filter as (“Text Files (*.TXT; *.CSV), *.txt; *.csv”).
• FilterIndex – specifies the default filter from the list supplied in the FileFilter If not defined, the first item in the list is selected as the default.
• Title – specifies the text to be displayed in the title bar of the dialog box.
• ButtonText – customizes the text for the buttons (Macintosh only).
• MultiSelect – Use TRUE to allow multiple files to be selected. Use FALSE to only allow a single file selection.  FALSE is the default choice.

If you’d like to understand how to use MultiSelect correctly, check out the complete course.

Updating the Code

The following are modifications we will make to our existing code:

• We want to capture the user’s selection in a variable named “FileToOpen”. This will be declared as a string data type.
• We will use an SET assignment statement to place the user’s selection in the “FileToOpen” variable.
• We will customize the title of the dialog box to read “Browse for your File & Import Range”.
• Finally, we will only display Excel files in the dialog box; i.e. files ending in .XLS, .XLSX, .XLSM, or .XLSB.

Using the argument positions to define the options, the updated code will appear as follows:

Sub Get_Data_From_File()
Dim FileToOpen as String
	FileToOpen = Application.GetOpenFilename(“Excel Files (*.xls*), *xls*”, , “Browse for your File & Import Range”)
End Sub

(click image to zoom)

Using the option titles to define the options, the updated code can be made more readable:

Sub Get_Data_From_File()
Dim FileToOpen as String
	FileToOpen = Application.GetOpenFilename(Title:=“Browse for your File & Import Range”, FileFilter:= “Excel Files (*.xls*), *xls*”)
End Sub

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Testing the Code

When we run the code, we are presented with the following (note the custom title and filters):

Selecting a file and clicking Open returns us back to Excel with no action.  We’re still not convinced anything happened.

To see the user’s file selection captured as a variable, perform the following:

1. Add a breakpoint to the “End Sub” step of the code (click the light gray column to the left of the “End Sub” line of code)
2. Highlight the “FileToOpen” variable
3. Right-click the highlighted variable and select “Add Watch…”
4. Click OK to add the watch (the Watch window will open automatically)

(click image to zoom)

Run the code.

After selecting a test file and clicking Open, the code will pause on the final line.

Examining the Watch window, we can see the selected file name has been captured and stored in the “FileToOpen” variable.  (NOTE: You can also hover your mouse pointer over any reference to “FileToOpen” and observe a pop-up that displays the variable’s contents.)

(click image to zoom)

Cancelling Our Choice

Suppose the user cancels the Open dialog box.  How will the code respond to this action?

If we launch the code and press the Cancel button without selecting a file, the GetOpenFilename method returns a “False” response and stores it in our “FileToOpen” variable.

(click image to zoom)

Because the “FileToOpen” variable was declared as a string data type, the word “False” will be interpreted as the filename to be opened.

Fixing the Code

Because we want to capture a text string when the user selects a file or capture a Boolean response when the user clicks the Cancel button, we need to change the data type of our “FileToOpen” variable to a Variant data type.

Dim FileToOpen as VariantDim FileToOpen as Variant

If we execute the code with this modification, we can see when we pause on the last line that the “FileToOpen” variable is holding a Boolean FALSE response, not a text response.

(click image to zoom)

We will test the “FileToOpen” variable for the presence of a Boolean FALSE.  If the variable is NOT False, we will execute the remainder of the code.  Otherwise, we will do nothing.

Sub Get_Data_From_File()
Dim FileToOpen As Variant
	FileToOpen = Application.GetOpenFilename(Title:="Browse for your File & Import Range", FileFilter:="Excel Files (*.xls*),*xls*")
	If FileToOpen <> False Then
		(Things happen here)
	End If
End Sub

(click image to zoom)

The below code contains instructions for what is to be performed when a valid filename is supplied.

We have added an additional variable named “OpenBook” to store the contents of the selected file.  The “OpenBook” variable is declared as a Workbook data type.

The additional code will perform the following tasks:

1. Open the selected file
2. Store the contents of the file in the variable “OpenBook”
3. Select the first sheet in the workbook
4. Copy the contents of cells A1 through E20
5. Paste the copied data as values into the file named “SelectFile” starting in cell A10
6. Close the workbook selected by the user

Sub Get_Data_From_File()
Dim FileToOpen As Variant
Dim OpenBook as Workbook
	FileToOpen = Application.GetOpenFilename(Title:="Browse for your File & Import Range", FileFilter:="Excel Files (*.xls*),*xls*")
	If FileToOpen <> False Then
		Set OpenBook = Application.Workbooks.Open(FileToOpen)
		OpenBook.Sheets(1).Range("A1:E20").Copy
		ThisWorkbook.Worksheets("SelectFile").Range("A10").PasteSpecial xlPasteValues
		OpenBook.Close False
	End If
End Sub

(click image to zoom)

Optimizing the Code

To reduce screen flicker when opening background files, we will add the “Application.ScreenUpdating” toggle to our code.

We will place the toggle at the beginning with a FALSE setting and the same toggle at the end of the code with a TRUE setting.

Sub Get_Data_From_File()
Dim FileToOpen As Variant
Dim OpenBook as Workbook
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
	(Original OPEN and IF operations go here)
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

BONUS: Defining Multiple Filters with Defaults

If you wish to filter for a variety of file type; such as Excel files, text files, or all files, you can define your FileFilter argument as follows:

Application.GetOpenFilename("Excel Files (*xls*), *xls*, Text Files (*.TXT), *.txt, All Files (*.*), *.*")

Notice when run, the list has been filtered for Excel files, but you are provided a dropdown to select one of the other two categories of files.

If we add a value to the FilterIndex option, we can pre-select one of the defined filters to be a default choice.  For our three filters, we would define the following values:

1 – for Excel files

2 – for Text files

3 – for All files

The updated code will appear as follows if we wish for Text files to be the default filter selection.

Application.GetOpenFilename("Excel Files (*xls*), *xls*, Text Files (*.TXT), *.txt, All Files (*.*), *.*", 2)

Practice Workbook

Feel free to Download the Workbook HERE.

title	keywords	f1_keywords	ms.prod	api_name	ms.assetid	ms.date	ms.localizationpriority
Application.GetOpenFilename method (Excel)	vbaxl10.chm133142	vbaxl10.chm133142	excel	Excel.Application.GetOpenFilename	83931dc2-59b3-550b-6ce1-880413fd23d6	04/04/2019	high

Application.GetOpenFilename method (Excel)

Displays the standard Open dialog box and gets a file name from the user without actually opening any files.

Syntax

expression.GetOpenFilename (FileFilter, FilterIndex, Title, ButtonText, MultiSelect)

expression A variable that represents an Application object.

Parameters

Name	Required/Optional	Data type	Description
FileFilter	Optional	Variant	A string specifying file filtering criteria.
FilterIndex	Optional	Variant	Specifies the index numbers of the default file filtering criteria, from 1 to the number of filters specified in FileFilter. If this argument is omitted or greater than the number of filters present, the first file filter is used.
Title	Optional	Variant	Specifies the title of the dialog box. If this argument is omitted, the title is «Open.»
ButtonText	Optional	Variant	Macintosh only.
MultiSelect	Optional	Variant	True to allow multiple file names to be selected. False to allow only one file name to be selected. The default value is False.

Return value

Variant

Remarks

This string passed in the FileFilter argument consists of pairs of file filter strings followed by the MS-DOS wildcard file filter specification, with each part and each pair separated by commas. Each separate pair is listed in the Files of type drop-down list box. For example, the following string specifies two file filters—text and addin:

"Text Files (*.txt), *.txt,Add-In Files (*.xla), *.xla"

To use multiple MS-DOS wildcard expressions for a single file filter type, separate the wildcard expressions with semicolons; for example: "Visual Basic Files (*.bas; *.txt), *.bas;*.txt".

If FileFilter is omitted, this argument defaults to "All Files (*.*), *.*".

This method returns the selected file name or the name entered by the user. The returned name may include a path specification. If MultiSelect is True, the return value is an array of the selected file names (even if only one file name is selected). Returns False if the user cancels the dialog box.

This method may change the current drive or folder.

Example

This example displays the Open dialog box, with the file filter set to text files. If the user chooses a file name, the code displays that file name in a message box.

fileToOpen = Application _ 
 .GetOpenFilename("Text Files (*.txt), *.txt") 
If fileToOpen <> False Then 
 MsgBox "Open " & fileToOpen 
End If

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