Vba read from excel file

You can VBA Read file binary or text data using a couple of different approaches in Excel. VBA provides you a set of native statements like Open to open and ready files. However in this article aside from showing you these native approaches to reading files using Excel Macros you can read CSV files and other structured data schemas using Jet.OLEDB driver, Microsoft Queries or also the FileSystemObject.

Text/binary files are common ways of storing data as opposed to databases or regular Excel files. Looking at various resources I missed a single resource which would demonstrate the various methods for PROPERLY reading files in VBA.

It is important to remember that you shouldn’t read all files using the same approach. Be aware of the structure of the file. If it is a structured CSV use the ADODB connection, if you need to read only a couple of rows read the file row by row or by chunks, else read the whole file. If you want performance – always select the right approach.

Reading text files in VBA

VBA Read text files (line by line)

To read an entire text file line by line use the code below.

Dim fileName As String, textData As String, textRow As String, fileNo As Integer
fileName = "C:text.txt"
fileNo = FreeFile 'Get first free file number  
    
Open fileName For Input As #fileNo
Do While Not EOF(fileNo)
   Line Input #fileNo, textRow
   textData = textData & textRow
Loop
Close #fileNo

VBA Read text files (read whole file)

To read an entire text file in one go (not line by line) use the code below.a

Dim fileName As String, textData As String, fileNo As Integer
fileName = "C:text.txt"
fileNo = FreeFile 'Get first free file number   
 
Open fileName For Input As #fileNo
textData = Input$(LOF(fileNo), fileNo)
Close #fileNo

VBA Read specific number of lines from a text file

In cases when you want to read specific lines from a text file you can adapt the line by line read code as below. It allows you to read a certain number of lines (noLines) from a text file from a specific start line number (sLine). If you set noLines to 0 it will read all lines till end of the file.

Dim fileName As String, textData As String, textRow As String, fileNo As Integer
Dim lineCounter as Long, sLine as Long, noLines as Long

fileName = "C:text.txt"

sLine = 20 'number of the first line you want to read
noLines = 100 'number of lines you want to read

fileNo = FreeFile 
Open fileName For Input As #fileNo
Do While Not EOF(fileNo)
  Line Input #fileNo, textRow
  If lineCount >= sLine and ((noLines > 0 and lineCount < noLines + sLine) or noLines = 0) then
    textData = textData &amp; textRow
  End If
  lineCount = lineCount + 1   
Loop
Close #fileNo

Reading CSV files in VBA

Reading CSV files (read whole file and process each row)

Reading a text file line by line into a string:

'Assuming file looks like this. File path: C:test.csv
'"Col1", "Col2", "Col3"
'1     , 2     , 3

directory = "C:"
fileName = "test.csv" 'Assuming test.csv is in C: directory
Set rs = CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
strcon = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" & directory & ";" _
& "Extended Properties=""text;HDR=Yes;FMT=Delimited"";"
strSQL = "SELECT * FROM " & fileName 
rs.Open strSQL, strcon, 3, 3
rs.MoveFirst
Do
   col1 = rs("Col1")
   col2 = rs("Col2")
   col3 = rs("Col3")
   rs.MoveNext
Loop Until rs.EOF

Reading CSV files (whole file to Worksheet)

Read whole file to an Excel Worksheet:

Dim ws as Worksheet, destRng as Range, fileName as String
fileName = "C:text.txt"
Set destRng = Range("A1")
Set ws = ActiveSheet
With ws.QueryTables.Add(Connection:= "TEXT;" & fileName & "", Destination:=destRng)
    .FieldNames = True
    .RowNumbers = False
    .FillAdjacentFormulas = False
    .PreserveFormatting = True
    .RefreshOnFileOpen = False
    .RefreshStyle = xlInsertDeleteCells
    .SaveData = True
    .AdjustColumnWidth = True
    .RefreshPeriod = 0
    .TextFilePromptOnRefresh = False
    .TextFilePlatform = 852
    .TextFileStartRow = 1
    .TextFileParseType = xlDelimited
    .TextFileTextQualifier = xlTextQualifierDoubleQuote
    'Select your delimiter - selected below for Comma
    .TextFileConsecutiveDelimiter = False
    .TextFileTabDelimiter = False
    .TextFileSemicolonDelimiter = False
    .TextFileCommaDelimiter = True
    .TextFileSpaceDelimiter = False
    .TextFileTrailingMinusNumbers = True
    'This will refresh the query
End With

To refresh the CSV upload (in case the CSV was updated) simply run:

  
ws.QueryTables.Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False

Reading binary files in VBA

Dim fileName As String, fileNo As Integer, intVar As Integer
fileName = "C:text.bin"
fileNo = FreeFile

Open fileName For Binary Lock Read As #fileNo
Get #fileNo, , intVar
Close #fileNo

With Binary files often you will be using objects which are not of fixed byte length like Integers. For example you would want to read Strings from binary files together with other data types. In such cases use the Type object data type when writing to a file. Learn more here.
Below a simple example of reading a file to which a Type data type was saved to, including an Integer and String.

Type TestType
    intVar As Integer
    strVar As String
End Type

Sub ReadBinary()
    Dim fileName As String, fileNo As Integer, testVar As TestType
    fileName = "C:test.bin"

    fileNo = FreeFile
    Open fileName For Binary Lock Read As #fileNo
    Get #fileNo, , testVar
    Debug.Print testVar.intVar 'Print the Integer
    Debug.Print testVar.strVar 'Print the String
    Close #fileNo
End Sub

Reading XML files in VBA

XML files are basically text files which follow the XML taxonomy. You can try to read and process XML files similarly as text files shown above. However, given you will probably want to extract specific XML tag or attribute information I suggest reading my dedicated article below.

Functions needed to read files in VBA

Above functions allow native upload of file data. However for more complicated scenario you will probably go for the FileSystemObject.

VBA Read File Summary

Reading files in VBA is not hard and requires just a few lines of code usually. It is, however, important to use the appropriate approach to read a file in VBA. Not all files need to be read line-by-line which is usually inefficient. Equally so you need not always read the entire file if you just need the first few / last rows. Working with XML files is also not a challenge if you read through my post on how to work with XML files.

Want to Write to files instead?

If you are looking to write to files instead using VBA, read my article on how to write to files using VBA.

Edit: After user3561813 the suggestion of adding "/", it now read the first file. I have an out of range error message "9". It does read the first file correctly. Ultimately I am trying to open each file, and read the name and age (this is a testing not the real production form). And retrieve the values back to my main worksheet.

Original question

I am trying to read hundred of excel forms in a folder, read a particular cell position, and record them into my testing worksheet. I googled this tutorial and tried to write my code. But when I execute the Getting Folder function, selected a folder path, it does not loop the excel files I have. (or record their names)

'Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7x1T4s8DVc0
Sub GettingFolder()
Dim SelectedFolder As String

With Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
    .Title = "Select folder"
    .ButtonName = "Confirm"
    .InitialFileName = "U:"

    If .Show = -1 Then
        'ok clicked
        SelectedFolder = .SelectedItems(1)
        MsgBox SelectedFolder
        ' This is where I want to call my function
        LoopFiles (SelectedFolder)
    Else
        'cancel clicked
    End If
End With
End Sub

' Source: http://www.excel-easy.com/vba/examples/files-in-a-directory.html
Sub LoopFiles(path As String)
Dim directory As String, fileName As String, sheet As Worksheet
Dim i As Integer, j As Integer

' Avoid Screen flicker and improve performance
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
' Fixed per suggestion below..
directory = path & ""
fileName = Dir(directory & "*.xl??")

Do While fileName <> ""
    i = i + 1
    j = 2
    Cells(i, 1) = fileName
    Workbooks.Open (directory & fileName)
    For Each sheet In Workbooks(fileName).Worksheets
        Workbooks("Testing.xlsm").Worksheets(1).Cells(i, j).Value = sheet.Name
        j = j + 1
    Next sheet
    Workbooks(fileName).Close
    fileName = Dir()
Loop

' Reset the screen update setting
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Below we will look at a program in Excel VBA that reads data from a text file. This file contains some geographical coordinates we want to import into Excel.

Situation:

1. First, download the text file and add it to «C:test»

Place a command button on your worksheet and add the following code lines:

2. We declare four variables. myFile of type String, text of type String, textline of type String, posLat of type Integer, and posLong of type Integer.

Dim myFile As String, text As String, textline As String, posLat As Integer, posLong As Integer

3. We need to initialize the variable myFile with the full path and the filename.

myFile = «C:testgeographical-coordinates.txt»

or

use the GetOpenFilename method of the Application object to display the standard Open dialog box and select the file (without actually opening the file).

myFile = Application.GetOpenFilename()

Note: the empty part between the brackets means we give Excel VBA nothing as input. Place your cursor on GetOpenFilename in the Visual Basic Editor and click F1 for help on the arguments.

4. Add the following code line:

Open myFile For Input As #1

Note: this statement allows the file to be read. We can refer to the file as #1 during the rest of our code.

5. Add the following code lines:

Do Until EOF(1)
    Line Input #1, textline
    text = text & textline
Loop

Note: until the end of the file (EOF), Excel VBA reads a single line from the file and assigns it to textline. We use the & operator to concatenate (join) all the single lines and store it in the variable text.

6. Close the file.

Close #1

7. Next, we search for the position of the words latitude and longitude in the variable text. We use the Instr function.

posLat = InStr(text, «latitude»)
posLong = InStr(text, «longitude»)

8. We use these positions and the Mid function to extract the coordinates from the variable text and write the coordinates to cell A1 and cell A2.

Range(«A1»).Value = Mid(text, posLat + 10, 5)
Range(«A2»).Value = Mid(text, posLong + 11, 5)

9. Test the program.

Result:

Excel Import Data From Another Workbook – VBA Codes

To pull data from an external Excel file, use on of these scenarios.

1. Closed Excel file: Using VBA Import data with Workbook object
2. Opened Workbook: Using VBA Read Excel file.
3. External Reference within Worksheets.
4. ODBC Data Import from another workbook.

Excel – Pull data from another Workbook using VBA

To understand how to get data from another Excel file, lets assume these 2 workbook names.

• Source: In this workbook, VBA code will be executed to write or import data from/to Target file.
• Target: This workbook has the data that the Source Workbook will read or modify through VBA.

1. VBA To Update Closed Workbook

This Excel vba import data from another workbook without opening the file manually.

First we will create an Workbook object to refer the external Excel file.  And use that object to import data into our Active workbook or Source Workbook.

Let’s see the actual VBA code for this purpose. Copy paste the below code to VB Editor and execute the code by pressing F5. Make sure that the Target file exists in correct path as mentioned in Target_Path in the code, before executing the code.

Sub VBA_Read_Data_Another_External_Workbook()

    '''''Define Object for Target Workbook
    Dim Target_Workbook As Workbook
    Dim Source_Workbook As Workbook
    Dim Target_Path As String
    
    '''''Assign the Workbook File Name along with its Path
    '''''Change path of the Target File name
    Target_Path = "D:Sample.xlsx"
    Set Target_Workbook = Workbooks.Open(Target_Path)
    Set Source_Workbook = ThisWorkbook
    
    '''''With Target_Workbook object now, it is possible to pull any data from it
    '''''Read Data from Target File
    Target_Data = Target_Workbook.Sheets(1).Cells(1, 1)
    Source_Workbook.Sheets(1).Cells(1, 1) = Target_Data
    
    '''''Update Target File
    Source_data = Source_Workbook.Sheets(1).Cells(3, 1)
    Target_Workbook.Sheets(1).Cells(2, 1) = Source_data
    
    '''''Close Target Workbook
    Source_Workbook.Save
    Target_Workbook.Save
    Target_Workbook.Close False
    
    '''''Process Completed
    MsgBox "Task Completed"
    
End Sub

2. VBA Read Excel file or Write To Open Workbook?

If a workbook is already in opened and executing, then you can reference that Excel with its name through ‘Workbooks’ collection. You have to use the workbook name itself inside the code to read or write content as mentioned in this sample code.

Sub Write_To_Open_Excel()
    Dim wb As Workbook
    
    'Reference Workbook with its name
    Workbooks("Book2").Worksheets("Sheet2").Activate
    Workbooks("Book3.xls").Worksheets("Sheet2").Activate
    
    'Search for Each Opened Workbook
    For Each wb In Workbooks
        If wb.Name = "Book2" Then
            wb.Sheets(1).Cells(1, 1) = "Writing To Open Excel Worksheet - Testing"
        End If
    Next
End Sub

3. External Reference to Import Data from another Workbook

With this technique, in the Excel we pull data from another cell by using references. For example, in Cell A1 if we need to get date from Cell B1, we enter “=B1” in cell A1. This is a reference that is made within the scope of current workbook.

In our example if we need to refer the Target sheet, use the command as below.

=’D:[sample.xlsx]Sheet1′!A2

This will fetch the data from the external workbook.

Reference from Microsoft: How to create External reference and pull data from another excel?

4. Data Import Option or ODBC in Excel VBA

This is similar to Data Import facility available in Excel. To do this, the Target workbook should be having some table defined in it.

To import the data from Target, Go to Source Workbook, Data->From Other Sources ->From Microsoft Query and Give the path of the Target Workbook or use the below code by modifying the File path and Column Header Details.

Sub Data_Import_Recorded_Macro()

    '''''Change File path and Column Headers to Use this code
    With ActiveSheet.ListObjects.Add(SourceType:=0, Source:= _
        "ODBC;DSN=Excel Files;DBQ=D:Sample.xlsx;DefaultDir=D:;DriverId=1046;MaxBufferSize=2048;PageTimeout=5;" _
        , Destination:=Range("$A$1")).QueryTable
        .CommandText = Array( _
        "SELECT `Sheet1$`.Column1, `Sheet1$`.Column2, `Sheet1$`.Column3" & Chr(13) & "" & Chr(10) & "FROM `D:Sample.xlsx`.`Sheet1$` `Sheet1$`" _
        )
        .RowNumbers = False
        .FillAdjacentFormulas = False
        .PreserveFormatting = True
        .RefreshOnFileOpen = False
        .BackgroundQuery = True
        .RefreshStyle = xlInsertDeleteCells
        .SavePassword = False
        .SaveData = True
        .AdjustColumnWidth = True
        .RefreshPeriod = 0
        .PreserveColumnInfo = True
        .ListObject.DisplayName = "Table_Query_from_Excel_Files"
        .Refresh BackgroundQuery:=False
    End With
    
End Sub

These are some of the methods that are available to import from an external workbook to current active workbook. But still, this is not the limit.

Note: To read a Plain Text file or binary file, use VBA File Handling commands as in this link. How to Read contents from a Text File using VBA?

There might be other feasible methods known to others. If there is any, please post a reference as you find.