Files

[LG]

What would be an equivalent in VB for a simple DOS command?

copy A:*.txt c:\temp.txt
del A:*.txt

Or maybe someone can give me a hand to run such BAT file with help of Shell. the problem with Shell is that I have to wait untill Shell finished its job. But in W95/98 OS without .pif ("close on exit" properti of BAT file)file shell never finished its process without user's respond.

Use the FileCopy and Kill for Copy and Delete.

MyFile = "C:\MyFile"
DestFile = "C:\Windows\NewFile"

FileCopy MyFile, DestFile ' Copy MyFile
Kill "C:\MyFile" ' Delete MyFile

[HeSaidJoe]

'copy or save a file to a different directory

Private Sub Command1_Click()

Dim SourcePath As String, DestPath As String
SourcePath = "c:\my documents\try.txt"
DestPath = "c:\download\whodoneit.txt"

FileCopy SourcePath, DestPath

End



'using fso kill a file
'before killing check for existence to avoid error on kill
'
Dim sFile$
sFile = "Path & Name Of Your File.ext"

Dim FSO As Object
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

If FSO.FileExists(sFile$) = True Then
Kill sFile
Else
MsgBox "Sorry, the specified file does not exist!"
End If
Set FSO = Nothing

[LG]

Thank you , but you are missing my point: CopyFile does not take a "wild card". Otherwise I would not have a this question.

[HeSaidJoe]

'bas module code for copying a file from
'one directory to another
'in this case from c:\a vb tips to a:\a vb tips
'CAUTION....WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING FILES WITHOUT PROMPT

Option Explicit
'
Declare Function CreateDirectory Lib "kernel32" Alias "CreateDirectoryA" _
(ByVal lpPathName As String, _
lpSecurityAttributes As SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES) As Long

Declare Function CopyFile Lib "kernel32" Alias "CopyFileA" _
(ByVal lpExistingFileName As String, _
ByVal lpNewFileName As String, _
ByVal bFailIfExists As Long) As Long

Declare Function FindFirstFile Lib "kernel32" Alias "FindFirstFileA" _
(ByVal lpFileName As String, _
lpFindFileData As WIN32_FIND_DATA) As Long

Declare Function FindNextFile Lib "kernel32" Alias "FindNextFileA" _
(ByVal hFindFile As Long, _
lpFindFileData As WIN32_FIND_DATA) As Long

Declare Function FindClose Lib "kernel32" _
(ByVal hFindFile As Long) As Long
'
Public Const INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = -1
Public Const MAX_PATH = 260

Type FILETIME
dwLowDateTime As Long
dwHighDateTime As Long
End Type

Type WIN32_FIND_DATA
dwFileAttributes As Long
ftCreationTime As FILETIME
ftLastAccessTime As FILETIME
ftLastWriteTime As FILETIME
nFileSizeHigh As Long
nFileSizeLow As Long
dwReserved0 As Long
dwReserved1 As Long
cFileName As String * MAX_PATH
cAlternate As String * 14
End Type

Type SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES
nLength As Long
lpSecurityDescriptor As Long
bInheritHandle As Long
End Type

Public Function rgbCopyFiles(sSourcePath As String, _
sDestination As String, _
sFiles As String) As Long

Dim WFD As WIN32_FIND_DATA
Dim SA As SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES

Dim r As Long
Dim hFile As Long
Dim bNext As Long
Dim copied As Long
Dim currFile As String

'Create the target directory if it doesn't exist
Call CreateDirectory(sDestination, SA)

'Start searching for files in the Target directory.
hFile = FindFirstFile(sSourcePath & sFiles, WFD)

If (hFile = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) Then

'nothing to do, so bail out
MsgBox "No " & sFiles & " files found."
Exit Function

End If

'Copy each file to the new directory
If hFile Then

Do

'trim trailing nulls, leaving one to terminate the string
currFile = Left$(WFD.cFileName, InStr(WFD.cFileName, Chr$(0)))

'copy the file to the destination directory & increment the count
Call CopyFile(sSourcePath & currFile, sDestination & currFile, False)
copied = copied + 1

'find the next file matching the initial file spec
bNext = FindNextFile(hFile, WFD)

Loop Until bNext = 0

End If

'Close the search handle
Call FindClose(hFile)

'and return the number of files copied
rgbCopyFiles = copied

End Function

'>>>> CODE FOR FORM <<<<

Dim sSourcePath As String
Dim sDestination As String
Dim sFiles As String
Dim numCopied As Long

'set the appropriate initializing values
sSourcePath = "c:\A VB Tips\"
sDestination = "a:\A VB Tips\"
sFiles = "*.*"

'perform the copy and return the copied file count; end application
numCopied = rgbCopyFiles(sSourcePath, sDestination, sFiles)

MsgBox numCopied & " files copied to " & sDestination

Unload Me

[LG]

Thanks.

I got to this point myself but the problem still remains.
The result of DOS commant copy A:*.txt c:\temp.txt is the only file, so maybe the question should be "How to append files"

[HeSaidJoe]

copy A:*.txt c:\temp.txt
guess I missed again..
now I see that what you are saying
is that command copyies all text files form A:\
into the file temp.txt on the c:\ drive...

Here I thought it just was going from folder to folder..
that's a horse of a different color...
needs a little thought...
you will have to open and read each file
stick the reading of each file into an array
then when all reading is done you will have
to load the array into the temp.txt file
and save it...

am I right in assuming this?

[kedaman]

Opening in Binary is fast and easy:

Property Get File(Filename As String) As String
    Dim fnum As Byte
    fnum = FreeFile
    Open Filename For Binary As fnum
        File = Space(LOF(fnum))
        Get #fnum, , File
    Close fnum
End Property
Property Let File(Filename As String, textstring As String)
    Dim fnum As Byte
    fnum = FreeFile
    If Dir(Filename) <> "" Then Open Filename For Output As fnum: Close fnum
    Open Filename For Binary As fnum
        Put #fnum, , textstring
    Close fnum
End Property

You can use it like this:

file("c:\temp.txt")=file("a:\blabla1")+file("a:\blabla2")

Hope you can suit it for your purpose

[LG]

Yes HeSaidJoe, now you got to the problem.

You see. The dos command is idial, the only thing is that it (shell) runs it asychronicaly. The next action in the application is to read from appendend file, wich as a matter of fact does not exist yet.
To solve that I wrote a rutine (OpenProces ...) to wait for DOS to finish its job. And it works without a problem on my work station (NT).
When I installed it on clients computer (win98), i realized that shell never finises the job. It looks like a difference between OS. It seems that WIN98 ignores Exit command in the BAT file untill you create a shortcut (.pif) file with option "close on exit". Maybe there is a way to create such a file from VB or intallation package? I dont now.
Running a DOS .bat would be better for me because it is unnown how many files are on A: drive, but as soon as it is a problem with WIN98, I am looking for a solution.

kedaman, your advice is OK but I would prefer some other thing, just because I dont know either names and numbers of files on A: ( I am given only extentions), I still have to write a painfull procedure to lookup for files names and ....

Such a small DOS Command is turning to be the VB project, painful ......

[Edited by LG on 06-22-2000 at 08:55 PM]

[kedaman]

I wouldnt say there's a problem:

Path = "A:\*.txt"
a = Dir(Path)
Do While Len(a)
    b = b & file(a)
    a = Dir
Loop
file(destination) = b

[LG]

Looks promissing, I'll give it a tray.

[LG]

kedaman


Open Filename For Binary As fnum
File = Space(LOF(fnum))
Get #fnum, , File
Close fnum
For some reason File(a) returns empty string all the time.
What am I doing wrong?

[kedaman]

No idea, put a break at
b = b & file(a)
and chech out what a is.
Also you should declare all vars as string.