Microsoft KB Archive/181817

= WD98: Using the Open Statement in Word VBA =

Article ID: 181817

Article Last Modified on 6/17/2005

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Word 98 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q181817





SUMMARY
The Open statement is part of the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications language. This command allows you to open a data file for reading, modifying, or adding to the file.

NOTE: The Open statement does not open the file into the workspace, it merely opens the file for manipulation by your macro.

NOTE: The Open statement should not be used to open a program's own file types. For example, do not use Open to open a Word document, a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, or a Microsoft Access database. Doing so will cause loss of file integrity and file corruption.



MORE INFORMATION
Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements. The correct syntax for the Open statement is:

Open pathname For mode [access] [lock] As [#]filenumber [Len=reclength]

The Open statement syntax has the following parts.   Part            Description pathname       Required. String expression that specifies a file name may include directory or folder, and drive.

mode           Required. Keyword specifying the file mode: Append, Binary, Input, Output, or Random. If unspecified, the file is opened for Random access.

access         Optional. Keyword specifying the operations permitted on                  the open file: Read, Write, or Read Write.

lock           Optional. Keyword specifying the operations permitted on                  the open file by other processes: Shared, Lock Read, Lock Write, and Lock Read Write.

filenumber     Required. A valid file number in the range 1 to 511, inclusive. Use the FreeFile function to obtain the next available file number.

reclength      Optional. Number less than or equal to 32,767 (bytes). For files opened for random access, this value is the record length. For sequential files, this value is the number of characters buffered.

Sample Visual Basic Procedure
Sub OpenExample

Dim sFirst, sLast, sAddress, sCity, sState, sZip As String

' CREATE DATA FILE ' Open file for input. Open "TextDataFile" For Output As #1

' Write data to file. Write #1, "John", "Doe", "An Address", "A City", "A State", "A Zip"

' Close file. Close #1

' RETRIEVE DATA FROM FILE ' Open file for input. Open "TextDataFile" For Input As #1

' Loop until the end of file is reached. Do While Not EOF(1)

' Read data into variables. Input #1, sFirst,sLast,sAddress,sCity,sState,sZip

' Print data to Debug window. Debug.Print sFirst,sLast,sAddress,sCity,sState,sZip

Loop

' Close file. Close #1

End Sub This macro creates or opens a file called "TextDataFile" and puts the comma and quotation mark delimited data into the file. The data can then later be retrieved using the Input # Statement.

