How to pass string to concatenate routine.

[haran415]

First, let me say I am not a skilled programmer!

I am trying to write some VB6 code that creates a string with the files names in a directory and then passes it to a concatenate routine to create one text file containing the contents of each file in the directory.

I am using the “ListFiles” and “ListFilesPriv” functions to create a variable of the file names and the “ConcatenateFiles” routine to create the new text file with the contents of each file in the directory.

My problem is I cannot seem to pass the string of file names created with “ListFiles” and “ListFilesPriv” functions to the “ConcatenateFiles” routine! I can manually type the file names into the code and it works fine, but if I try and pass a string containing all the file names to the “ConcatenateFiles” routine, it does not work! It is driving me crazy!

Here is a copy of the test code I am trying to get working (I know it is messy, I will clean it up after I get it working )

Can anyone tell me why I can the “ConcatenateFiles” routine to work if I manually enter the file names as follows?
ConcatenateFiles "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\data.txt", "", "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\Log\03-02-2007_16-57-03_KM32G02003AEE_00D0E09448DC.csv", "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\Log\03-06-2007_10-01-09_KM32G030004FA_00D0E09214C1.csv"
However, not if I try passing the file names with a string like the following.
ConcatenateFiles "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\data.txt", "", temp4
Thanks in advance for any help or advice you can give me!

sjh

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dim temp
Dim temp1
Dim temp2
Dim temp3
Dim temp4
Dim temp5$
Dim temp6
Dim quote$
Dim comma$

' list all the files in a directory
' if NESTEDDIRS = True it lists a whole directory tree
'
' returns a 1-based array containing all the listed files

Function ListFiles(ByVal Path As String, Optional ByVal NestedDirs As Boolean) _
As String()
Dim fso As New Scripting.FileSystemObject
Dim fld As Scripting.Folder
Dim fileList As String

' get the starting folder
Set fld = fso.GetFolder(Path)
' let the private subroutine do all the work
fileList = ListFilesPriv(fld, NestedDirs)
' convert to a string array
' (the first element will be a null string)
ListFiles = Split(fileList, ",")

End Function

' private procedure that returns a file list
' as a comma-delimited list of files

Function ListFilesPriv(ByVal fld As Scripting.Folder, _
ByVal NestedDirs As Boolean) As String
Dim fil As Scripting.File
Dim subfld As Scripting.Folder

' list all the files in this directory
For Each fil In fld.Files
ListFilesPriv = ListFilesPriv & "," & fil.Path
Next

' if requested, search also subdirectories
If NestedDirs Then
For Each subfld In fld.SubFolders
ListFilesPriv = ListFilesPriv & ListFilesPriv(subfld, NestedDirs)
Next
End If

End Function

Private Sub Command1_Click()
TestGetAllFiles
temp = Len(temp2)
temp3 = temp - 4
temp1 = Left(temp2, temp3)
temp4 = Trim(temp1)
temp5$ = "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\data.txt"
temp6 = ""
Debug.Print "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\data.txt", "", "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\Log\03-02-2007_16-57-03_KM32G02003AEE_00D0E09448DC.csv", "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\Log\03-06-2007_10-01-09_KM32G030004FA_00D0E09214C1.csv"
ConcatenateFiles "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\data.txt", "", temp4
End Sub


Sub TestGetAllFiles()
Dim varFileArray As Variant
Dim lngI As Long
Dim strDirName As String

Const NO_FILES_IN_DIR As Long = 9
Const INVALID_DIR As Long = 13

On Error GoTo Test_Err

strDirName = "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\Log"
varFileArray = ListFiles(strDirName)
For lngI = 1 To UBound(varFileArray)
Debug.Print varFileArray(lngI) & ", "
temp2 = temp2 + varFileArray(lngI) + ", "
Next lngI

Test_Err:
Select Case Err.Number
Case NO_FILES_IN_DIR
MsgBox "The directory named '" & strDirName _
& "' contains no files."
Case INVALID_DIR
MsgBox "'" & strDirName & "' is not a valid directory."
Case 0
Case Else
MsgBox "Error #" & Err.Number & " - " & Err.Description
End Select
End Sub


' Concatenate a variable number of text files into a single result file
'
' Params:
' - ResultFile: the complete path of the result file you want to create
' - Separator: a string that is written when a file is added to the result
' file.
' Note: this string can contain the #FilePath# tag that will be replaced
' with the path of the file being added
' - SourceFiles: a sequence of files whose content will be concatenated
'
' Example:
' ConcatenateFiles "D:\res.txt", "------ NEW FILE: #FilePath# ------",
' "D:\1.txt", "D:\2.txt", "D:\3.txt"


Private Sub ConcatenateFiles(ByVal ResultFile As String, _
ByVal Separator As String, ParamArray SourceFiles() As Variant)

Dim fso As New FileSystemObject
Dim fsSourceStream As TextStream
Dim fsResStream As TextStream
Dim sSeparator As String
Dim i As Integer

On Error Resume Next

' create a new file
Set fsResStream = fso.OpenTextFile(ResultFile, ForWriting, True)

' for each source file in the input array
For i = 0 To UBound(SourceFiles)
' add the separator first (replacing the special tag for the file path)
sSeparator = Replace(Separator, "#FilePath#", SourceFiles(i))
'sSeparator = Replace(Separator, "", SourceFiles(i))
'fsResStream.Write sSeparator & vbCrLf
fsResStream.Write sSeparator
' open the file in read mode
Set fsSourceStream = fso.OpenTextFile(SourceFiles(i), ForReading)
' add its content + a blank line to the result file
'fsResStream.Write fsSourceStream.ReadAll & vbCrLf
fsResStream.Write fsSourceStream.ReadAll
' close this source file
fsSourceStream.Close
Next i

fsResStream.Close
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
quote$ = Chr(34)
comma$ = Chr(44)
End Sub

[Steve Grant]

Well if you look at the example;

' Example:
' ConcatenateFiles "D:\res.txt", "------ NEW FILE: #FilePath# ------",
' "D:\1.txt", "D:\2.txt", "D:\3.txt"

You can see that the files must be presented either as individual filenames separated by a comma, or you can actually send an array. You have dimensioned Temp4 as a variant but not as an array.

From a quick look at your code, it seems to me that you could send 'ListFiles' directly to the 'ConcatenateFiles' routine.

' Example:
' ConcatenateFiles "D:\res.txt", "------ NEW FILE: #FilePath# ------",
' ListFiles(ByVal Path As String, Optional ByVal NestedDirs As Boolean)

Obviously I have not tried this, but I cannot see why it wouldn't work.

[haran415]

Thanks for the reply!

I do not understand how to pass the ListFiles to the 'ConcatenateFiles' routine.

I am using the 'TestGetAllFiles' sub to build the string with all the file names, I then try to use the string created with 'TestGetAllFiles' (temp2) in the 'ConcatenateFiles' routine, but it does not work if there is more than one file in the directory!

Any further advice you could provide would be greatly appreciated!

Regards, sjh

[Steve Grant]

Hi, one of us is missing what's required. As I understand it, you want to get all the filenames of textfiles in a given directory, then you want to pass them to 'ConcantenateFiles' which will open each one and add it's contents to another file.

If I am right, then look at the structure of the 'ConcatenateFiles' routine. It expects an array of filenames and that is what the output of 'ListFiles' is, an array of Filenames! So my last example in my previous post should work.

However to make it clearer I will point the example at your Log directory, which needs to be full of text files only, csv should be ok. Try;

ConcatenateFiles "K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\data.txt", _
"", ListFiles("K:\DSN-QA\VB Projects\KMM S-C INTERFACE v2.0\Database\Log")

EDIT:

I have now actually tried it and you have to change the input param of Concatenatefiles to;

Private Sub ConcatenateFiles(ByVal ResultFile As String, _
    ByVal Separator As String, SourceFiles() As String)

Steve.

[haran415]

Thank you, thank you, thank you! I thought it was a problem with the input parameters, but didn't know how to change them correctly.

Again, thank you so much for helping me out!

Best Regards, sjh