Line 3 calls the FreeFile function,which returns the next free file number.

Lines 1 and 2 declare the two variables that will be used to represent the file handles for the two input files.

Listing 12.7: Variable Names Used to Identify Files Listing 12.7 gives an example of variable names being used to identify two files. If you have a few files in a large application, then declaring variable names for each handle makes your code easier to understand, debug, and maintain over time. File handles can be specified explicitly, like this: This enables hundreds of different files to be open at the same time, all with unique identification numbers. Opening a file in Output mode deletes all the data from the file, whereas opening a file in Append mode preserves any data already in the file.įilenumber The FiTenumber is also called file handle and can range from 1 to 511 inclusive. Data are read from the file by assigning them to variables. Using bytes means that the data can be any type.

Binary: The data in the file can be read and written in bytes.

Any data in the file when it is opened remains intact. Append: The application writes data to the end of the file.Any existing data in the file are deleted when the file is opened.

Output: The application writes data to the file.Input: The application reads data from a file.Mode The mode can be Input, Output, Append, Binary, or Random. Pathname This argument uniquely identifies a file. Here is the syntax of the Open statement: A file must be open before you can read any data from it or write any data to it.Īs you have already seen, VBA provides the Open statement for this purpose. This section describes how to open files for input (reading the data) and output (writing the data).

Excel vba open for input as