ThreeWave Exporting And Import Text With Excel

This page describes how to import text files to Excel and how to export Excel data out to text files.
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Introduction

This pages describes VBA procedures that you can use to export data from an Excel worksheet to a text file and to import data from a text file directly into an existing range of a worksheet.

These procedures are for delimited file, where each field is of (optionally) different lengths and fields are separated by a separator character such as a comma. See Exporting To A Fixed Width File for code to export Excel data to a fixed width text file. See Importing A Fixed Width File for code to import a fixed width text file into Excel.

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Exporting To A Text File

This procedure allows you to export data from a worksheet range to a text file. You may specify the character (e.g, a space, tab, pipe, comma, etc) that separates the exported elements. Each row of cells in the worksheet is written to one line within the text file, and each item in that line is separated by the specified delimiter character. Any single character may be used as the delimiter.

The ExportToTextFile procedure follows. The parameters to ExportToTextFile are described in the following table:

Parameter Description
FName The name of the file to which the data will be written. The file will be created if it does not exist. See AppendData below.
Sep The character that is to separate the elements on each row of the exported file. Typically, this is vbTab, a space, a comma, semicolor, or pipe ( | ). Any character may be used.
SelectionOnly If True, only the currently selected cells are exported. If False, the entire used range of the worksheet is exported.
AppendData If True and FName exists, data is written to the end of the text file, preserving the existing contents. If False, the existing contents of FName are destroyed and only the newly exported data will appear in the output file.

 
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' ExportToTextFile
' This exports a sheet or range to a text file, using a 
' user-defined separator character.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Public Sub ExportToTextFile(FName As String, _
    Sep As String, SelectionOnly As Boolean, _
    AppendData As Boolean)

Dim WholeLine As String
Dim FNum As Integer
Dim RowNdx As Long
Dim ColNdx As Integer
Dim StartRow As Long
Dim EndRow As Long
Dim StartCol As Integer
Dim EndCol As Integer
Dim CellValue As String


Application.ScreenUpdating = False
On Error GoTo EndMacro:
FNum = FreeFile

If SelectionOnly = True Then
    With Selection
        StartRow = .Cells(1).Row
        StartCol = .Cells(1).Column
        EndRow = .Cells(.Cells.Count).Row
        EndCol = .Cells(.Cells.Count).Column
    End With
Else
    With ActiveSheet.UsedRange
        StartRow = .Cells(1).Row
        StartCol = .Cells(1).Column
        EndRow = .Cells(.Cells.Count).Row
        EndCol = .Cells(.Cells.Count).Column
    End With
End If

If AppendData = True Then
    Open FName For Append Access Write As #FNum
Else
    Open FName For Output Access Write As #FNum
End If

For RowNdx = StartRow To EndRow
    WholeLine = ""
    For ColNdx = StartCol To EndCol
        If Cells(RowNdx, ColNdx).Value = "" Then
            CellValue = Chr(34) & Chr(34)
        Else
           CellValue = Cells(RowNdx, ColNdx).Value
        End If
        WholeLine = WholeLine & CellValue & Sep
    Next ColNdx
    WholeLine = Left(WholeLine, Len(WholeLine) - Len(Sep))
    Print #FNum, WholeLine
Next RowNdx

EndMacro:
On Error GoTo 0
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Close #FNum

End Sub
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' END ExportTextFile
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Because the ExportToTextFile procedure accepts input parameters, you must call it from other VBA code, such as the following:

Sub DoTheExport()
    ExportToTextFile FName:="C:\Test.txt", Sep:=";", _
       SelectionOnly:=False, AppendData:=True
End Sub

In the example DoTheExport procedure above, the file name and the separator character are hard coded in to the code. If you want to prompt the user for the file name and the separator character, use code like the following: 

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' DoTheExport
' This prompts the user for the FileName and the separtor
' character and then calls the ExportToTextFile procedure.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Sub DoTheExport()
    Dim FileName As Variant
    Dim Sep As String
    FileName = Application.GetSaveAsFilename(InitialFileName:=vbNullString, FileFilter:="Text Files (*.txt),*.txt")
    If FileName = False Then
        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''
        ' user cancelled, get out
        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''
        Exit Sub
    End If
    Sep = Application.InputBox("Enter a separator character.", Type:=2)
    If Sep = vbNullString Then
        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''
        ' user cancelled, get out
        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''
        Exit Sub
    End If
    Debug.Print "FileName: " & FileName, "Separator: " & Sep
    ExportToTextFile FName:=CStr(FileName), Sep:=CStr(Sep), _
       SelectionOnly:=False, AppendData:=True
End Sub
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' END DoTheExport
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This code will prompt the user for a text file name in which to save the file and for the separator character. If the user cancels either of these dialogs, the procedure is terminated and no export operation is carried out.

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Importing A Text File

This procedure allows you to import data from a delimited text file. Each line in the text file is written to one row in the worksheet. Items in the text file are separated into separate columns on the worksheet row based on the character you specify.

If your text file contains greater the 64K records, or you need to split the imported text across multiple worksheets, see Importing Big Text Files Into Excel.

The ImportToTextFIle procedure is shown below. FName is the name of the file to import and Sep is the character that separates column data.

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' ImportTextFile
' This imports a text file into Excel.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Public Sub ImportTextFile(FName As String, Sep As String)

Dim RowNdx As Long
Dim ColNdx As Integer
Dim TempVal As Variant
Dim WholeLine As String
Dim Pos As Integer
Dim NextPos As Integer
Dim SaveColNdx As Integer

Application.ScreenUpdating = False
'On Error GoTo EndMacro:

SaveColNdx = ActiveCell.Column
RowNdx = ActiveCell.row

Open FName For Input Access Read As #1

While Not EOF(1)
    Line Input #1, WholeLine
    If Right(WholeLine, 1) <> Sep Then
        WholeLine = WholeLine & Sep
    End If
    ColNdx = SaveColNdx
    Pos = 1
    NextPos = InStr(Pos, WholeLine, Sep)
    While NextPos >= 1
        TempVal = Mid(WholeLine, Pos, NextPos - Pos)
        Cells(RowNdx, ColNdx).Value = TempVal
        Pos = NextPos + 1
        ColNdx = ColNdx + 1
        NextPos = InStr(Pos, WholeLine, Sep)
    Wend
    RowNdx = RowNdx + 1
Wend

EndMacro:
On Error GoTo 0
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
Close #1
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' END ImportTextFile
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End Sub

Since ImportTextFile takes input parameters, it should be called from other VBA code: 

Sub DoTheImport()
ImportTextFile FName:="C:\Test.txt", Sep:="|"
End Sub

In this code, both the file name and the separator are hard coded into the code. If you want to prompt the user for a file name and separator character, use code like the following:

''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' DoTheImport
' This prompts the user for a FileName as separator character
' and then calls ImportTextFile.
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Sub DoTheImport()
    Dim FileName As Variant
    Dim Sep As String
    FileName = Application.GetOpenFilename(FileFilter:="Text File (*.txt),*.txt")
    If FileName = False Then
        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''
        ' user cancelled, get out
        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''
        Exit Sub
    End If
    Sep = Application.InputBox("Enter a separator character.", Type:=2)
    If Sep = vbNullString Then
        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''
        ' user cancelled, get out
        ''''''''''''''''''''''''''
        Exit Sub
    End If
    Debug.Print "FileName: " & FileName, "Separator: " & Sep
    ImportTextFile FName:=CStr(FileName), Sep:=CStr(Sep)
End Sub
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' END DoTheImport
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In this code, the user is prompted for the import file name and the separator character. If either of these prompts are cancelled, the operation is terminated.

This page last modified: 17-November-2007.

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