Find and delete files vba

All the code examples below use the built-in Dir function and its derivatives. The File System Object methods are not covered in this post but will be covered at a future point. Referencing a folder which does not exist will result in an error, therefore it is often necessary to check if a folder exists before carrying out any other actions. The code above can be adapted to check for other types of files too.

For checking folder existence within another procedure, it is often easier to have a reusable function, which can be called upon when required. The following VBA code calls the doesFolderExist function from above and prints True the folder exists or False the folder does not exist to the Immediate window. Do you know the fastest way to learn foreign languages?

It is to read, write, speak, and think in that language as often as possible. Apart from speaking, programming languages are no different. The more you immerse yourself in that language, the faster you will pick it up.

Therefore, what most people like you need is lots of examples that you can practice. The book contains:. The VBA code below will create a new folder. If the folder already exists, it will not overwrite it, but it will display an error.

The function will only create the last folder in the file path, all the parent folders must already exist. As the Dir function will only create a single folder, the code below loops through the individual folder names in the path and calls the Dir function to create any missing folders and subfolders. The RmDir function will delete a folder. However, it is limited as it will only delete an empty folder.

All the files within the folder will need to be deleted first. Using the File System Object method which is not covered in this post it is possible to delete folders and their contents. If the folder does not exist the RmDir function will display an error. Refer to the first section of this post to check for existence. The VBA code below will re-name a folder, and even move the contents of the entire folder to another location.

Deleting those files manually will take the time, or we may forget to save, and it will occupy the space on our computer. You are free to use this image on your website, templates etc, Please provide us with an attribution link How to Provide Attribution? A simple KILL function will delete the folder, specific file, all excel files, etc. The kill method cannot delete read-only files. Path Name: pathname is nothing but the folder path in the computer to delete the files.

Note: Pathname can include wildcard characters as well. Asterisk denotes multiple characters, a question mark denotes a single character, and a tilde denotes the identification of a wild card character. We have seen how we can delete a single excel file and all the excel files. But if we want to delete all the files in the folder, how can we delete it. Since we are using Excel VBA, can it delete other files?

To do this, the first thing we need to do is we need to delete all the files in the folder by using the KILL function and then to delete the folder, and we need to use one more function called RmDir.

Here RmDir will delete only the empty folder if any subfolder is where it cannot delete them. FileSystemObject — pghcpa. Since there's no variable to set to Nothing, is there a risk the FileSystemObject will remain in memory, causing a leak or other issue?

No, it will be discarded after the "End With". Since it is not assigned to a variable the effect is similar to the object having been assigned to a variable that has been set to "Nothing".

If the file doesn't exist in the first place, mission accomplished! JohnFx JohnFx 34k 18 18 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. You raise a good point but, like most things, I think it would depend on context and sometimes simply having a "File Exists" function is handy apart from deletion. SaveCopyAs is not able to overwrite, so you first have to remove existing file with same filename. The Len dir The following can be used to test for the existence of a file, and then to delete it.

Rich Adams Rich Adams I know this question and response are old, just thought I'd add that using Len to test strings and functions that return strings seems to be faster than literal string comparisons in VBA. The reason that Len and LenB , which is even faster are faster than string comparison is that in memory, VB strings are preceded by their length.

On the other hand, using string comparison has much more work to do. Additionally, avoid using "" in VB as it always allocates a new string. Use vbNullString instead as it is a constant and does not uses more memory. ZygD 9, 35 35 gold badges 58 58 silver badges 76 76 bronze badges. Leo Moore Leo Moore 2, 2 2 gold badges 19 19 silver badges 21 21 bronze badges.

Delete End if. Brettski Brettski 18k 15 15 gold badges 69 69 silver badges 87 87 bronze badges. This is method I use..

The file won't delete if it's in use, so must have error trap — Gregg Burns. This is a great alternative, if asynch is what you want. Darrel Miller Darrel Miller k 30 30 gold badges silver badges bronze badges. Sign up or log in Sign up using Google. Sign up using Facebook. Sign up using Email and Password. Post as a guest Name.