Article ID: 181788
Article Last Modified on 8/21/2007
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Word 97 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q181788
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
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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.
Statement Example
Sub OpenExample()
Dim sFirst, sLast, sAddress, sCity, sState, sZip As String
' CREATE DATA FILE
' Open file for input.
Open "Datafile.txt" 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 "Datafile.txt" 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 Datafile.txt and puts the comma and quotation mark delimited data into the file. The data can then later be retrieved using the Input # Statement.
REFERENCES
For more information about writing data to files, click the Office Assistant while in the Visual Basic Editor, type Writing Data to Files, click Search, and then click to view "Writing Data to Files."
For additional information, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
173707 OFF97: How to Run Sample Code from Knowledge Base Articles
For more information about getting help with Visual Basic for Applications, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
163435 VBA: Programming Resources for Visual Basic for Applications
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