Microsoft KB Archive/141509

= Macro to Append Text from One Text File to Another =

Article ID: 141509

Article Last Modified on 10/11/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 95 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 5.0 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q141509





SUMMARY
The "More Information" section of this article contains sample Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macros (Sub procedures) that you can use to append the contents of one text file to another.



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. In the following macro examples, the AppendFiles1 and AppendFiles2 macros take the data from one text file, Source.txt, and append it to the data in the Dest.txt text file.

To set up the example, use a text editor such as Windows Notepad to create the following text files.

The Dest.txt file should contain the following information:   Last Name, First Name, Address, City, State, Zip Code John,Smith,1 Main St.,Seattle,WA,12345 Jane,Doe,2 East Rd,Charlotte,NC,52631 Tom,Jones,3 West Cir.,Tuscon,AZ,36258 The Source.txt file should contain the following information:   Bill,Adams,6 Elm Ln.,Seattle,WA,85692 Sue,Thompson,33 Maple Ct.,Las Colinas,TX,58692 Jerry,Brown,32 Main Rd.,Tuscon,AZ,96524 Pamela,Smith,88 Rain Rd.,Charlotte,NC,89526

Method 1
Use file input and output (file I/O) commands in a Visual Basic macro.

The following macro demonstrates how you can use the Open, Line Input, and Print statements to read data from one text file and append it to another. Sub AppendFiles1

Dim SourceNum As Integer Dim DestNum As Integer Dim Temp As String

' If an error occurs, close the files and end the macro. On Error GoTo ErrHandler

' Open the destination text file. DestNum = FreeFile Open "DEST.TXT" For Append As DestNum

' Open the source text file. SourceNum = FreeFile Open "SOURCE.TXT" For Input As SourceNum

' Include the following line if the first line of the source ' file is a header row that you do now want to append to the ' destination file: ' Line Input #SourceNum, Temp

' Read each line of the source file and append it to the ' destination file. Do While Not EOF(SourceNum) Line Input #SourceNum, Temp Print #DestNum, Temp Loop

CloseFiles:

' Close the destination file and the source file. Close #DestNum Close #SourceNum Exit Sub

ErrHandler: MsgBox "Error # " & Err & ": " & Error(Err) Resume CloseFiles

End Sub

Method 2
Use the MS-DOS "copy" command. This method applies only to Microsoft Excel for Windows or Windows 95.

The following example runs the MS-DOS "copy" command to append two text files. Sub AppendFiles2

' Run the DOS Copy command to append the text files. Shell "command.com /c" & _ "copy c:\dest.txt+c:\source.txt c:\dest.txt /b"

End Sub NOTE: When you use the Shell command to execute a command in the command interpreter (Command.com), use the /c switch followed by the command. The /b switch can be used with the Copy command to indicate that an end-of-file character should not be added to the destination file.

After you run either macro, Dest.txt should resemble the following:   Last Name, First Name, Address, City, State, Zip Code John,Smith,1 Main St.,Seattle,WA,12345 Jane,Doe,2 East Rd,Charlotte,NC,52631 Tom,Jones,3 West Cir.,Tuscon,AZ,36258 Bill,Adams,6 Elm Ln.,Seattle,WA,85692 Sue,Thompson,33 Maple Ct.,Las Colinas,TX,58692 Jerry,Brown,32 Main Rd.,Tuscon,AZ,96524 Pamela,Smith,88 Rain Rd.,Charlotte,NC,89526

