Microsoft KB Archive/186118

= How To Use FileSystemObject with Visual Basic =

Article ID: 186118

Article Last Modified on 7/15/2004

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Learning Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Learning Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0 Enterprise Edition
 * Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Enterprise Edition

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This article was previously published under Q186118



SUMMARY
FileSystemObject provides a non-hierarchical structure to manipulate, read, and create ASCII and Unicode text files. This structure is very different from the hierarchical structure of the original implementation of File I/O in Visual Basic. FileSystemObject does not support binary file access, so you must still use the original File I/O model in Visual Basic for binary file access.



MORE INFORMATION
FileSystemObject can be found in Scrrun.dll. In addition to FileSystemOject, Scrrun.dll includes four other objects available for File I/O and other tasks. These objects include the File object, the TextStreamObject object, the Folder object, and the Drive object. All of these objects have properties and methods that are detailed in the Help files.

You can obtain Scrrun.dll by installing one of the following packages:

Windows Script Host

Windows NT Option Pack

Microsoft Internet Information Server 3.0

Scripting 3.1 upgrade

Visual Studio 6.0

Visual Basic 6.0

FileSystemObject was originally created for the Visual Basic Scripting Edition. FileSystemObject is not included in the object library for Visual Basic or Visual Basic for Applications. To use FileSystemObject, you must select the Microsoft Scripting Run-time in the Project References dialog box for your project.

The following sample illustrates how to implement some of the FileSystemObject functionality. For more information, please see the Visual Basic Help files and the Visual Basic Books Online.

Steps to Create Sample Project
 Start a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default. Click References on the Project menu and select the Microsoft Scripting Runtime. If the Microsoft Scripting Runtime does not appear in the list, browse for Scrrun.dll on your system. Install one of the tools listed previously if necessary.  Add four CommandButton controls to Form1. The CommandButton controls demonstrate the following functionality:   Command1: How to read an existing text file using FileSystemObject and TextStreamObject.

Command2: How to view file information using FileSystemObject and the File object.

Command3: How to iterate through folders using FileSystemObject and the Folder object.

Command4: How to view drive information using FileSystemObject and the Drive object.

  Paste the following code into the General Declarations section of Form1: Option Explicit

Private Sub Command1_Click 'Declare variables. Dim fso As New FileSystemObject Dim ts As TextStream 'Open file. Set ts = fso.OpenTextFile(Environ("windir") & "\system.ini") 'Loop while not at the end of the file. Do While Not ts.AtEndOfStream Debug.Print ts.ReadLine Loop 'Close the file. ts.Close End Sub

Private Sub Command2_Click Dim fso As New FileSystemObject Dim f As File 'Get a reference to the File object. Set f = fso.GetFile(Environ("windir") & "\system.ini") MsgBox f.Size 'displays size of file End Sub

Private Sub Command3_Click Dim fso As New FileSystemObject Dim f As Folder, sf As Folder, path As String 'Initialize path. path = Environ("windir") 'Get a reference to the Folder object. Set f = fso.GetFolder(path) 'Iterate through subfolders. For Each sf In f.SubFolders Debug.Print sf.Name Next End Sub

Private Sub Command4_Click Dim fso As New FileSystemObject Dim mydrive As Drive Dim path As String 'Initialize path. path = "C:\" 'Get object. Set mydrive = fso.GetDrive(path) 'Check for success. MsgBox mydrive.DriveLetter 'displays "C" End Sub

 Run your project. Click each CommandButton control and observe the results.

Keywords: kbhowto kbfileio KB186118

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