Show all excel files

You probably don’t need this every day: But once a file you might want to have a list of all files within a folder or directory in Excel. The good thing: There are many methods available. If you Google it, you will find a lot of different methods to create a file list in Excel. But unfortunately, all of them have advantages and disadvantages – which you usually only find out after trying them. That’s the reason for this article: You won’t only learn each method step by step: You will rather find an overview comparing all the advantages and disadvantages of each method. After seeing this, you don’t need to start extensive trials and errors. Much better: You can easily select the method that works best for you!

Summary

	Method 1: Copy & Paste on Mac	Method 2: Named function	Method 3: Internet browser	Method 4: PowerQuery	Method 5: Excel-Add-In	Method 6: Windows PowerShell	Method 7: VBA Macro
Short description	Copy and paste from the Mac Finder.	Use a function in a named range to insert a file list.	Open folder with a web browser and copy the file list.	Use PowerQuery to insert a directory.	Let an Excel add-in do the work for you.	Use the Windows built-in PowerShell feature.	Use a VBA Macro to insert a file list.
Ease of use
Operating system	Mac	Windows	Windows / Mac	Windows / Mac	Windows	Windows	Windows
Include subfolders and files	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	(Yes) (depends on the VBA macro)
File information available	File names	File names	File names, file links (not working properly), file size, date modified	Folder path, name extension, date accessed, date modified, date created More attributes: Content type, kind, size, ReadOnly, hidden, S system, directory, archive, device, normal, temporary, SparseFile, ReparsePoint, compressed, offline, NotContentIndexed, encrypted, ChangeTime, SymbolicLink, MountPoint	Links to files on the drive, file path, date and time last saved, date and time created, file size, file type	File name, file path, date and time last saved, file size	Depends on the VBA macro
Technology	Mac Finder	Named function in Excel	Internet browser	PowerQuery	Excel Add-In	PowerShell, Text Import Wizard	VBA
Comment	Fast but with limited options.	Only shows files, no folders.	File links not working in our test; not working with all internet browsers (tested with Google Chrome and working).	Elegant and uses built-in functions.	Convenient, fast and many options.	Results not good, difficult process; performs well on large file structures, though.	Modifying the macro rather for advanced users.
Link	Click here	Click here	Click here	Click here	Click here	Click here	Click here

Method 1: Simply copy and paste from Mac Finder to Excel

This first method works on a Mac only: Just select all files in a Finder window and press copy (Command + C on the keyboard). Next, switch to Excel and paste the list: Press Command + V on the keyboard.

The advantage of this method is that it’s very easy and fast. Unfortunately, you don’t have any further options than just pasting the file names. That means you can’t insert data of subfolders or file properties.

Recommendation: Use this if you need a quick file list on the Mac – without any further information.

Method 2: Insert a file list with built-in Excel functions using “Named Ranges”

The second method is actually quite elegant: Use built-in Excel functions to insert a file list in Excel. It is built on advanced functions, such as an Excel function within a named range. But following these steps should be quite straight-forward.

Set up the named range

1. Choose a cell in which you later write the folder path. In this case, it’s cell C4.
2. Click on “Defined Name” on the Formulas ribbon.
3. Give a name for the cell containing the folder path (here: “Folder_Path”)
4. In the “Refers to” field, type: =files(linktopathcell) (replace “linktopathcell” with your cell reference – in this case “Method_2!$C$4”).
5. Confirm with OK.

Use the named range in Excel functions

1. Go to the Windows Explorer and copy the folder path.

1. Paste the folder link into the folder path cell (the cell you have set as the named range in step 1 above). Add one of the following endings:
   • If you want to include all files – no matter which file type – in your list, add *
   • For listing only Excel files, add *.xls*
   • If you want to see all files ending on “.xlsx”, add *.xlsx
2. As the last step, enter an INDEX function for compiling the list (here in cell B7):
   =INDEX(Folder_Path,ROW(B1))
   Folder_Path should be the same name that you have given in step 3 above. The ROW function should refer to any cell in the first row (for example to B1). That means, this argument could also be A1, C1, etc.
   As the last step: Copy the INDEX function down until you see the first #REF error. #REF means in this case that there are no more files in your folder. If you like, you could wrap the IFERROR function around in order to mitigate the error.

Recommendation: Use this if you only need a list of files (no subfolders) that dynamically updates itself.

Method 3: Use an internet browser to quickly copy and paste a file list to Excel

I must say, I like this idea because it’s almost as fast as our method number 1 above: Open a folder in a webbrowser and then copy & paste the list to Excel.

1. Copy the folder path from the Windows Explorer like on the screenshot or Mac Finder (for Mac: open file Info (right-click on folder and then on “Get Info”. Select and copy link from “Where” section).

1. Open a browser, for example Google Chrome (should be working with most other browsers as well). Paste the previously copied link into the address field.
2. Copy the table of files.
3. Open Excel and paste the file list.

One comment to this methods: The links (which are also created) usually won’t work in Excel.

Recommendation: Use this if you quickly need a file list (without subfolders), including some file properties such as file size and date last saved.

Method 4: Create a file list with PowerQuery

The next method is also among my favorites: It uses PowerQuery and comes with the advantages that it doesn’t require any complex programming or third-party technologies. Also, it can be refreshed easily later on.

1. Go to the Data ribbon, click on “Get Data” on the left, and select “From Folder” in the “From File” sub-menu.
2. Select the Folder and click on “Open” (not in the screenshot on the right).
3. You can now see a preview. Click on “Transform Data”.

1. Remove the first column “Content” (right-click on the heading and click on “Remove”).
2. If you want to see more file attributes than shown already in the preview, click on the small arrows of the “Attributes” column and select the attributes.
3. Click on Close & Load.

Recommendation: Use this method if you to have lots of file properties. It can later on easily be refreshed.

The Excel add-in Professor Excel Tools offers a function to easily insert directories. It regards subfolders and can insert various file properties:

• Links to files on the drive
• File path
• Date and time last saved
• Date and time created
• File size
• File type

You can further specify, where the directory should be created.

Using the “Get Directory” function is very simple:

1. Click on the Directory button on the Professor Excel ribbon.
2. Select all the file properties you’d like to show and the location, where the directory table should be placed in your Excel file.
3. Click on “Select folder and start”. Then, choose the folder and proceed with ok.

That’s it. Please feel free to download Professor Excel Tools here.

Recommendation: Use this method if you accept third-party add-ins within Excel. If you do, it’s quite convenient and fast.

As you can see in the following description, using PowerShell takes quite a lot of steps. It might be useful, though, if you have very large folder structures. Otherwise, try to use a different method.

Open PowerShell and write the directory into a text file

1. Navigate to the folder which you want to have the file list from. Hold down the Shift key on the keyboard and right-click on it (if you don’t hold down the Shift key, the option of “Open PowerShell window here” is not available).
2. Click on “Open PowerShell window here”.
3. Copy and paste the following code and press enter afterwards:

Get-ChildItem -Path $MyInvocation.MyCommand.Path -force -recurse > filelist.txt

Import text file into Excel

Open Microsoft Excel.

1. Open the Text Import Wizard: Go to the Data ribbon, click on “Get Data” on the left, then on “Legacy Wizards” and then on “From Text (Legacy)”. If this option is not available, you can activate it within the Excel settings (check this article for more information).
2. Select the file filelist.txt from your folder. In step 3 above it was created within your target folder.

Follow the import steps of the Text Import Wizard on the screen:

1. In the first step of three, make sure that “Fixed width” is selected. Click on Next.
2. In the lower part of the window, Excel shows a preview of your import. Check here, if the column separators are set correctly: You can move the vertical lines if necessary or add more by clicking on the respective number in the heading of the preview. Then click on Next and in the third step Next again. After that finish the Text Import Wizard by selecting the location where the file list should be placed.
3. As you can see in number 8, the file list is inserted, but has some disadvantages: Directory paths are cut, each subfolder has its own block, and so on.

In a nutshell: This method of creating file lists within Microsoft Excel via PowerShell is complex and the results aren’t as good as in the other methods.

Recommendation: Try to avoid this method.

Method 7: Let a VBA Macro loop through the files

The following VBA code creates a list of all files in a folder. The list will be placed on the currently active worksheet, starting from cell A1. Please make sure that you don’t override anything here.

Sub InsertFileList()

Dim objFileSystemObject As Object, objFolder As Object, objFile As Object, i As Integer

Set objFileSystemObject = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFolder = objFileSystemObject.GetFolder("Your folder path")

For Each objFile In objFolder.Files
    i = i + 1
    ActiveSheet.Cells(i, 1) = objFile.Name
Next

End Sub

Here is how to use the VBA-Code. If you need more help of how to use VBA macros, please refer to this article.

1. Copy the VBA code from above.
2. Open the VBA editor by pressing Alt + F11 on the keyboard.
3. Insert a new module: Right-click on the active workbook name on the left.
4. Go to “Insert” and click on “Module”.

1. Paste the code by pressing Ctrl + V on the keyboard.
2. Replace Your folder path with the path from your own folder.
3. Click on start in the VBA editor.

Download

Please feel free to download all examples from above in this comprehensive Excel workbook. Each method is located on a different worksheet. Just click here and the download starts.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Listing the files in a folder is one of the activities which cannot be achieved using normal Excel formulas.  I could tell you to turn to VBA macros or PowerQuery, but then any non-VBA and non-PowerQuery users would close this post instantly.  But wait!  Back away from the close button, there is another option.

For listing files in a folder we can also use a little-known feature from Excel version 4, which still works today, the FILES function.

If you search through the list of Excel functions, FILES is not listed.  The FILES function is based on an old Excel feature, which has to be applied in a special way.  The instructions below will show you step-by-step how to use it.

Create a named range for the FILES function

The first step is to create a named range, which contains the FILES function.  Within the Excel Ribbon click Formulas -> Define Name

Within the New Name window set the following criteria:

• Name: listFiles
  Can be any name you wish, but for our example we will be using listFiles.
• Refers to: =FILES(Sheet1!$A$1)
  Sheet1!$A$1 is the sheet and cell reference containing the name of the folder from which the files are to be listed.

Click OK to close the New Name window.

Apply the function to list files

The second step is to set-up the worksheet to use the named range.

In Cell A1 (or whichever cell reference used in the Refers to box) enter the folder path from which to list the files, followed by an Asterisk ( * ).  The Asterisk is the wildcard character to find any text, so it will list all the files in the folder.

Select the cell in which to start the list of files (Cell A3 in the screenshot below), enter the following formula.

=INDEX(listFiles,1)

The result of the function will be the name of the first file in the folder.

To retrieve the second file from the folder enter the following formula

=INDEX(listFiles,2)

It would be painful to change the file reference number within each formula individually, especially if there are hundreds of files.  The good news is, we can use another formula to calculate the reference number automatically.

=INDEX(listFiles,ROW()-ROW(A$2))

The ROW() function is used to retrieve the row number of a cell reference.  When used without a cell reference, it returns the row number of the cell in which the function is used.  When used with a cell reference it returns the row number of that cell.  Using the ROWS function, it is possible to create a sequential list of numbers starting at 1, and increasing by 1 for each cell the formula is copied into.

If the formula is copied down further than the number of files in the folder, it will return a #REF! error.

Finally, wrap the formula within an IFERROR function to return a blank cell, rather than an error.

=IFERROR(INDEX(listFiles,ROW()-ROW(A$2)),"")

Listing specific types of files

The FILES function does not just list Excel files; it lists all file types; pdf, csv, mp3, zip, any file type you can think of.  By extending the use of wildcards within the file path it is possible to restrict the list to specific file types, or to specific file names.

The screenshot below shows how to return only files with “pdf” as the last three characters of the file name.

The wildcards which can be applied are:

• Question mark ( ? ) – Can take the place of any single character.
• Asterisk ( * ) – Represents any number of characters
• Tilde ( ~ ) – Used as an escape character to search for an asterisk or question mark within the file name, rather than as a wildcard.

The screenshot below shows how to return only files with the name of “New York.“, followed by exactly three characters.

Advanced uses for the FILES named range

Below are some ideas of how else you could use the FILES function.

Count the number of files

The named range created works like any other named range.  However, rather than containing cells, it contains values.  Therefore, if you want to calculate the number of files within the folder, or which meet the wildcard pattern use the following formula:

=COUNTA(listFiles)

Create hyperlinks to the files

Wouldn’t it be great to click on the file name to open it automatically?  Well . . . just add in the HYPERLINK function and you can.

The formula in Cell A3 is:

=IFERROR(HYPERLINK(LEFT($A$1,LEN($A$1)-1)&INDEX(listFiles,ROW()-ROW(A$2)),
INDEX(listFiles,ROW()-ROW(A$2))),"")

Check if a specific file exists within a folder

It isn’t necessary to list all the files to find out if a file exists within the folder.  The MATCH function will return the position of the file within the folder.

The formula in cell B3 is:

=MATCH(A3,listFiles,0)

In our example, a file which contains the text “New Yor*” exists, as the 7th file, therefore a 7 is returned.  Cell B4 displays the #N/A error because “Seattle” does not exist in the folder.

Find the name of the next or previous file

The files returned are in alphabetical order, therefore it is possible to find the next or previous file using the INDEX / MATCH combination.

The next file after “Denver.xlsx” is “New York.pdf“. The formula in Cell B3 is:

=INDEX(listFiles,MATCH(A3,listFiles,0)+1)

Retrieve values from each file with INDIRECT

The INDIRECT function can construct a cell reference using text strings.  Having retrieved the list of files in a folder, it would be possible to obtain values from those files.

The formula in Cell B3 is:

=INDIRECT("'"&LEFT($A$1,LEN($A$1)-1)&"["&A3&"]Sheet1'!$A$1")

For INDIRECT to calculate correctly the file does need to be open, so this may be a significant flaw in this option.

Usage notes

When working with the FILES function there are a few things to be aware of:

• The file path and file name is not case sensitive
• Files are returned in alphabetical order
• Folders and hidden files are not returned by the function
• The workbook must be saved as a “.xlsm” file format

Further reading

There are variety of other Excel 4 functions available which still work in Excel. Check out this post to find out how to apply them and download the Excel 4 Macro functions reference guide.

If you decide to use a VBA method, check out this post.

You can use the built-in Dir function or the FileSystemObject.

• Dir Function: VBA: Dir Function

• FileSystemObject: VBA: FileSystemObject — Files Collection

They each have their own strengths and weaknesses.

Dir Function

The Dir Function is a built-in, lightweight method to get a list of files. The benefits for using it are:

• Easy to Use
• Good performance (it’s fast)
• Wildcard support

The trick is to understand the difference between calling it with or without a parameter. Here is a very simple example to demonstrate:

Public Sub ListFilesDir(ByVal sPath As String, Optional ByVal sFilter As String)

    Dim sFile As String

    If Right(sPath, 1) <> "" Then
        sPath = sPath & ""
    End If

    If sFilter = "" Then
        sFilter = "*.*"
    End If

    'call with path "initializes" the dir function and returns the first file name
    sFile = Dir(sPath & sFilter)

   'call it again until there are no more files
    Do Until sFile = ""

        Debug.Print sFile

        'subsequent calls without param return next file name
        sFile = Dir

    Loop

End Sub

If you alter any of the files inside the loop, you will get unpredictable results. It is better to read all the names into an array of strings before doing any operations on the files. Here is an example which builds on the previous one. This is a Function that returns a String Array:

Public Function GetFilesDir(ByVal sPath As String, _
    Optional ByVal sFilter As String) As String()

    'dynamic array for names
    Dim aFileNames() As String
    ReDim aFileNames(0)

    Dim sFile As String
    Dim nCounter As Long

    If Right(sPath, 1) <> "" Then
        sPath = sPath & ""
    End If

    If sFilter = "" Then
        sFilter = "*.*"
    End If

    'call with path "initializes" the dir function and returns the first file
    sFile = Dir(sPath & sFilter)

    'call it until there is no filename returned
    Do While sFile <> ""

        'store the file name in the array
        aFileNames(nCounter) = sFile

        'subsequent calls without param return next file
        sFile = Dir

        'make sure your array is large enough for another
        nCounter = nCounter + 1
        If nCounter > UBound(aFileNames) Then
            'preserve the values and grow by reasonable amount for performance
            ReDim Preserve aFileNames(UBound(aFileNames) + 255)
        End If

    Loop

    'truncate the array to correct size
    If nCounter < UBound(aFileNames) Then
        ReDim Preserve aFileNames(0 To nCounter - 1)
    End If

    'return the array of file names
    GetFilesDir = aFileNames()

End Function

File System Object

The File System Object is a library for IO operations which supports an object-model for manipulating files. Pros for this approach:

• Intellisense
• Robust object-model

You can add a reference to to «Windows Script Host Object Model» (or «Windows Scripting Runtime») and declare your objects like so:

Public Sub ListFilesFSO(ByVal sPath As String)

    Dim oFSO As FileSystemObject
    Dim oFolder As Folder
    Dim oFile As File

    Set oFSO = New FileSystemObject
    Set oFolder = oFSO.GetFolder(sPath)
    For Each oFile In oFolder.Files
        Debug.Print oFile.Name
    Next 'oFile

    Set oFile = Nothing
    Set oFolder = Nothing
    Set oFSO = Nothing

End Sub

If you don’t want intellisense you can do like so without setting a reference:

Public Sub ListFilesFSO(ByVal sPath As String)

    Dim oFSO As Object
    Dim oFolder As Object
    Dim oFile As Object

    Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Set oFolder = oFSO.GetFolder(sPath)
    For Each oFile In oFolder.Files
        Debug.Print oFile.Name
    Next 'oFile

    Set oFile = Nothing
    Set oFolder = Nothing
    Set oFSO = Nothing

End Sub