Jump to a specific line in a text file

[forchris]

Hi,

I have a huge text file that I need to read a specific line. The file has 5671 rows and 7743 columns, so it is too big to put into an array quickly. I know which row that I want to read, but I only know how to read from the first row down, so by the end it takes forever.

Here is the code:

aDEMFile = "C:\temp\dem300ft.txt"
iFileNum = FreeFile
Open aDEMFile For Input As iFileNum

'if the position to go to is ahead of the current
'pointer, then move ahead to that position.
If Yposition > tempPosition Then
For i = tempPosition To Yposition - 1
Line Input #iFileNum, str
tempPosition = tempPosition + 1
Let Position = tempPosition
Next
...

Can you jump to a specific record?

Is there a better way?

Or can I easily load this into an array? (it takes forever to load into the array now)

Thanks, Chris

[brucevde]

Does this file have a certain structure? Is each row fixed length or variable?
If the file has a specific structure using Seek would be perfect.

If the file is variable you could still use Seek but it would be guess work. Something like

Seek to Position * Average length of Row
Move Byte by Byte until you hit a CRLF.
Then start using Line Input as you are now.