VBA check if file exists

Question

I have this code. It is supposed to check if a file exists and open it if it does. It does work if the file exists, and if it doesn't, however, whenever I leave the textbox blank and click the submit button, it fails. What I want, if the textbox is blank is to display the error message just like if the file didn't exist.

Runtime-error "1004"

Dim File As String
File = TextBox1.Value
Dim DirFile As String

DirFile = "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\" & File
If Dir(DirFile) = "" Then
  MsgBox "File does not exist"
Else
    Workbooks.Open Filename:=DirFile
End If

Answer 1

Speed of Various FileExists Methods

I needed to check file existence for many of my projects, so I wanted to determine the fastest option. I used the micro timer code (see Benchmarking VBA Code) to run the File Exist functions below the table against a local folder with 2865 files to see which was faster. Winner used GetAttr. Using FSO method for Test 2 was a bit faster with the object defined as a global than not, but not as fast as the GetAttr method.

------------------------------------------------------
% of Fastest                Seconds       Name
------------------------------------------------------
100.00000000000%             0.0237387    Test 1 - GetAttr
7628.42784145720%            1.8108896    Test 2 - FSO (Obj Global)
8360.93687615602%            2.0522254    Test 2 - FSO (Obj in Function)
911.27399562739%             0.2163246    Test 3 - Dir
969.96844814586%             0.2302579    Test 4 - Dir$
969.75108156723%             0.2302063    Test 5 - VBA.Dir
933.82240813524%             0.2216773    Test 6 - VBA.Dir$
7810.66612746275%            1.8541506    Test 7 - Script.FSO

Function FileExistsGA(ByVal FileSpec As String) As Boolean
  ' Karl Peterson MS VB MVP
  Dim Attr As Long
  ' Guard against bad FileSpec by ignoring errors
  ' retrieving its attributes.
  On Error Resume Next
  Attr = GetAttr(FileSpec)
  If Err.Number = 0 Then
    ' No error, so something was found.
    ' If Directory attribute set, then not a file.
    FileExistsGA = Not ((Attr And vbDirectory) = vbDirectory)
  End If
End Function

Function FSOFileExists(sFilePathNameExt As String) As Boolean
    Dim fso As Object
    Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    FSOFileExists = fso.FileExists(sFilePathNameExt)
    Set fso = Nothing
End Function

Function FileExistsDir(sFilePathNameExt As String) As Boolean
    If Len(Dir(sFilePathNameExt)) > 0 Then FileExistsDir = True
End Function

Function FileExistsDirDollar(sFilePathNameExt As String) As Boolean
    If Len(Dir$(sFilePathNameExt)) > 0 Then FileExistsDirDollar = True
End Function

Function FileExistsVBADirDollar(sFilePathNameExt As String) As Boolean
    If Len(VBA.Dir$(sFilePathNameExt)) > 0 Then FileExistsVBADirDollar = True
End Function

Function FileExistsVBADir(sFilePathNameExt As String) As Boolean
    If Len(VBA.Dir(sFilePathNameExt)) > 0 Then FileExistsVBADir = True
End Function

Public Function IsFileSFSO(s)
    IsFileSFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject").FileExists(s)
End Function

I realize that this does not fully answer the OP, but is provides information on which of the answers provided seems to be most efficient.

Answer 2

Function FileExists(ByRef strFileName As String) As Boolean
' TRUE if the argument is an existing file
' works with Unicode file names
    On Error Resume Next
    Dim objFSO As Object
    Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    FileExists = objFSO.FileExists(strFileName)
    On Error GoTo 0
End Function

To make the function run faster, objFSO can be made a global variable and the code can be modified and saved in a module like this:

Option Explicit
Dim objFSO As Object
Function FileExists(ByRef strFileName As String) As Boolean
' TRUE if the argument is an existing file
' works with Unicode file names
    On Error Resume Next
    If objFSO Is Nothing Then Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    FileExists = objFSO.FileExists(strFileName)
    On Error GoTo 0
End Function

For strFileName to be a unicode string, you can, for example, either get it from a cell value or define it in a special way, as Excel's VBE doesn't save string constants in Unicode. VBE does support Unicode strings already saved in string variables. You're gonna have to look this up for further details.

Hope this helps somebody ^_^

Answer 3

A way that is clean and short:

Public Function IsFile(s)
    IsFile = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject").FileExists(s)
End Function

Answer 4

I use this function to check for file existence:

Function IsFile(ByVal fName As String) As Boolean
'Returns TRUE if the provided name points to an existing file.
'Returns FALSE if not existing, or if it's a folder
    On Error Resume Next
    IsFile = ((GetAttr(fName) And vbDirectory) <> vbDirectory)
End Function

Answer 5

Here is my updated code. Checks to see if version exists before saving and saves as the next available version number.

Sub SaveNewVersion()
    Dim fileName As String, index As Long, ext As String
    arr = Split(ActiveWorkbook.Name, ".")
    ext = arr(UBound(arr))

    fileName = ActiveWorkbook.FullName

    If InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Name, "_v") = 0 Then
        fileName = ActiveWorkbook.Path & "\" & Left(ActiveWorkbook.Name, InStr(ActiveWorkbook.Name, ".") - 1) & "_v1." & ext
    End If

   Do Until Len(Dir(fileName)) = 0

        index = CInt(Split(Right(fileName, Len(fileName) - InStr(fileName, "_v") - 1), ".")(0))
        index = index + 1
        fileName = Left(fileName, InStr(fileName, "_v") - 1) & "_v" & index & "." & ext

    'Debug.Print fileName
   Loop

    ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs (fileName)
End Sub

Answer 6

something like this

best to use a workbook variable to provide further control (if needed) of the opened workbook

updated to test that file name was an actual workbook - which also makes the initial check redundant, other than to message the user than the Textbox is blank

Dim strFile As String
Dim WB As Workbook
strFile = Trim(TextBox1.Value)
Dim DirFile As String
If Len(strFile) = 0 Then Exit Sub

DirFile = "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\" & strFile
If Len(Dir(DirFile)) = 0 Then
  MsgBox "File does not exist"
Else
 On Error Resume Next
 Set WB = Workbooks.Open(DirFile)
 On Error GoTo 0
 If WB Is Nothing Then MsgBox DirFile & " is invalid", vbCritical
End If

Answer 7

For checking existence one can also use (works for both, files and folders):

Not Dir(DirFile, vbDirectory) = vbNullString

_{The result is True if a file or a directory exists.}

Example:

If Not Dir("C:\Temp\test.xlsx", vbDirectory) = vbNullString Then
    MsgBox "exists"
Else
    MsgBox "does not exist"
End If

Answer 8

I'll throw this out there and then duck. The usual reason to check if a file exists is to avoid an error when attempting to open it. How about using the error handler to deal with that:

Function openFileTest(filePathName As String, ByRef wkBook As Workbook, _
                      errorHandlingMethod As Long) As Boolean
'Returns True if filePathName is successfully opened,
'        False otherwise.
   Dim errorNum As Long

'***************************************************************************
'  Open the file or determine that it doesn't exist.
   On Error Resume Next:
   Set wkBook = Workbooks.Open(fileName:=filePathName)
   If Err.Number <> 0 Then
      errorNum = Err.Number
      'Error while attempting to open the file. Maybe it doesn't exist?
      If Err.Number = 1004 Then
'***************************************************************************
      'File doesn't exist.
         'Better clear the error and point to the error handler before moving on.
         Err.Clear
         On Error GoTo OPENFILETEST_FAIL:
         '[Clever code here to cope with non-existant file]
         '...
         'If the problem could not be resolved, invoke the error handler.
         Err.Raise errorNum
      Else
         'No idea what the error is, but it's not due to a non-existant file
         'Invoke the error handler.
         Err.Clear
         On Error GoTo OPENFILETEST_FAIL:
         Err.Raise errorNum
      End If
   End If

   'Either the file was successfully opened or the problem was resolved.
   openFileTest = True
   Exit Function

OPENFILETEST_FAIL:
   errorNum = Err.Number
   'Presumabley the problem is not a non-existant file, so it's
   'some other error. Not sure what this would be, so...
   If errorHandlingMethod < 2 Then
      'The easy out is to clear the error, reset to the default error handler,
      'and raise the error number again.
      'This will immediately cause the code to terminate with VBA's standard
      'run time error Message box:
      errorNum = Err.Number
      Err.Clear
      On Error GoTo 0
      Err.Raise errorNum
      Exit Function

   ElseIf errorHandlingMethod = 2 Then
      'Easier debugging, generate a more informative message box, then terminate:
      MsgBox "" _
           & "Error while opening workbook." _
           & "PathName: " & filePathName & vbCrLf _
           & "Error " & errorNum & ": " & Err.Description & vbCrLf _
           , vbExclamation _
           , "Failure in function OpenFile(), IO Module"
      End

   Else
      'The calling function is ok with a false result. That is the point
      'of returning a boolean, after all.
      openFileTest = False
      Exit Function
   End If

End Function 'openFileTest()

Answer 9

You should set a condition loop to check the TextBox1 value.

If TextBox1.value = "" then
   MsgBox "The file not exist" 
   Exit sub 'exit the macro
End If

Hope it help you.

Answer 10

Maybe it caused by Filename variable

File = TextBox1.Value

It should be

Filename = TextBox1.Value