quickest i/o routine to process hundreds of ascii files

I need to know the quickest way to read many (up to 3,000) smaller files (usually below 500 K) into memory. Right now I am reading them in one line at a time. I tried using input for the len of the file, but that did not help.

Is there some way to make vb not do this sequentially - could I write something in C++ and call it from vb . . . anything please

There are many ways indeed to acomplish what you want to do. A COM object written in C++, would indeed be a very good way to do it. All you then need to do is to refernce the dll from your VB project and code away.

Other than that, i would have said the Input function, and the Get function. I usually find that the Get function is quicker on smaller files, while the Input function is quicker on larger files.

Code:

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Private Sub inputMethod(strFile As String)
    Dim strText As String
   
    Open strFile For Input As #1
    'get the whole file.
    strText = Input(LOF(1), #1)
    Close #1
   
End Sub

Private Sub getMethod(strFile As String)
    Dim bTemp As String
    Dim strText As String
   
    Open strFile For Binary As #1
    'redim the byte array to the size of the file
    ReDim bTemp(LOF(1) - 1) As Byte
    'get the file in binary
    Get #1, , bTemp
    Close #1
    'convert the byte array to a string
    strText = StrConv(bTemp, vbUnicode)
   
End Sub

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Personally I would use the FileSystemObject. It allows you to open the file as a single string in one operation.