Seeing if a file exist

[deoblo1]

ok, befor I open a file, I want to make sure the path, and the file exist. How do I do that?

[Lethal]

    if len(Dir$(path)) <> 0 Then "File Exists"

[JamesM]

Try:

if len(dir$(path))=0 then 'file doesn't exist

[Lethal]

That was weird, almost the exact same syntax...

[JamesM]

Yup, this has got to be one of the most common questions hey Lethal?

[Lethal]

yeah, it's in the top ten..

[GungaDin]

You just have to be a bit careful as the Dir function will give you an error if you try and access an invalid drive or drive without a disk (eg A Drive)

For example:

Dir("A:\test.txt") will give an error if there is no disk in the A drive. The following function takes care of this.

Public Function FileExists(FileName As String) As Boolean

    On Error GoTo FileNotFound

    If Len(Dir$(FileName)) <> 0 Then
        FileExists = True
    Else
        FileExists = False
    End If

Exit Function

FileNotFound:
    FileExists = False
    
End Function

Most of the time, this a complete waste of energy but this has pissed me off in the past.

Hope this helps,

Nathan Liebke

[Lethal]

Or simply use the On Error Resume Next or another inline error handler routine. I was presumming he was going to do some validation before porting it to "Live Data".

[GungaDin]

Yep, that would work too.