Searching .dat files

I was wondering if it was possible in VB6 to search a folder full of .dat files for a specific word in a .dat file? For instance, would I be able to make a program that searches for the word 'wire' in all of the .dat files in a folder then return a list of the files that contain the word?

This is a pretty basic example and is probably not too efficient with large files. It also assumes that the files are text not binary.

VB Code:

Option Explicit
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
 
    Dim find As String
    Dim fldr As String
    
    fldr = "c:\somefolder\"
    find = Dir$(fldr & "*.dat")
    
    Do While Len(find)
        SearchFile fldr & find, "wire"
        find = Dir$()
    Loop
        
    
End Sub
 
Public Sub SearchFile(ByVal fil As String, ByVal SearchFor As String)
 
    Dim dat As String
    Dim ff As Integer
    
    ff = FreeFile()
    
    On Error Goto Probs
    Open fil For Input As #ff
    dat = Input(LOF(ff), ff)
    Close #ff
    
    If InStr(1, dat, SearchFor, vbTextCompare) > 0 Then
        MsgBox "Found it in file " & fil
    End If
 
    On Error Goto 0
    Exit Sub
 
Probs:
    MsgBox "Errors occurred!"
    On Error Goto 0
 
End Sub

Here is somthing to start with:

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by pnish

This is a pretty basic example and is probably not too efficient with large files. It also assumes that the files are text not binary.

VB Code:

Option Explicit
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
 
    Dim find As String
    Dim fldr As String
    
    fldr = "c:\somefolder\"
    find = Dir$(fldr & "*.dat")
    
    Do While Len(find)
        SearchFile fldr & find, "wire"
        find = Dir$()
    Loop
        
    
End Sub
 
Public Sub SearchFile(ByVal fil As String, ByVal SearchFor As String)
 
    Dim dat As String
    Dim ff As Integer
    
    ff = FreeFile()
    
    On Error Goto Probs
    Open fil For Input As #ff
    dat = Input(LOF(ff), ff)
    Close #ff
    
    If InStr(1, dat, SearchFor, vbTextCompare) > 0 Then
        MsgBox "Found it in file " & fil
    End If
 
    On Error Goto 0
    Exit Sub
 
Probs:
    MsgBox "Errors occurred!"
    On Error Goto 0
 
End Sub

---

Ok, that code worked prefectly... at first. I decided to use .doc files (Microsoft Word) instead of .dat files. I took my test .dat files and just changed the extention to .doc and it still worked, it still found the word 'wire' in the .doc file. When I create a new .doc file and save it the program won't find it and it will go to the 'probs' part of the code.

Any ideas on how to fix that?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Radont

When I create a new .doc file and save it the program won't find it and it will go to the 'probs' part of the code.

Any ideas on how to fix that?

---

What is 'it will go to the 'probs' part of the code'? (My english is bad) Morten

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Ember

What is 'it will go to the 'probs' part of the code'? (My english is bad) Morten

---

It displays the "Error's Occurred" messagebox.

I must have zipped you the norwegian version. Sorry!

Did I almost promise you more stuff to search files and their content on the PC/Net? This is an App I made for a factory that needed to lookup earlier test results saved in ".ATR"-files. Things that has to be changed are marked 'To be changed'.
Have fun!
Morten

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Radont

When I create a new .doc file and save it the program won't find it and it will go to the 'probs' part of the code.

---

As I mentioned, the code I provided assumed you were working with text files. Word files are not pure text, they contain all sorts of formatting commands etc that can play havoc with that code. What was the error that occurred? Modify the error code like this and post the error...

VB Code:

Probs:
    MsgBox "The following error occurred:" & vbCrLf & Error$
    On Error Goto 0

Sorry it took so long for me to reply to this thread, I forgot to take the program home with me from work so I wasn't able to try anything over the weekend.

At any rate, the error was "Input Past End of File."

Also, that is a pretty slick program Ember. I'll be able to learn some stuff from it.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Radont

At any rate, the error was "Input Past End of File."

Also, that is a pretty slick program Ember. I'll be able to learn some stuff from it.

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Sorry, it's years ago I looked at these routines. I'm not working there any longer. Anyway, be my guest. :wave: