Determine if a File Exists Using the Windows API

Category:

Files and Directories

Type:

Snippets

Difficulty:

Intermediate

Author:

Waty

Version Compatibility:

More information:

Using the DIR function may not be the best way to determine if a file exists, especially if you are using VB to compare two directories, and take action when the files do not match. This function, using the Windows API, offers an alternative.

Instructions: Copy the declarations and code below and paste directly into your VB project.

Declarations:
' #VBIDEUtils#************************************************** ' * Programmer Name : Waty Thierry ' * Web Site : www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/6311/ ' * E-Mail : waty.thierry@usa.net ' * Date : 28/06/99 ' * Time : 12:24 ' ************************************************************** ' * Comments : API FileExist ' * ' * ' **************************************************************** Option Explicit Private Const INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE = -1 Private Const MAX_PATH = 260 Private Type FILETIME dwLowDateTime As Long dwHighDateTime As Long End Type Private Type WIN32_FIND_DATA dwFileAttributes As Long ftCreationTime As FILETIME ftLastAccessTime As FILETIME ftLastWriteTime As FILETIME nFileSizeHigh As Long nFileSizeLow As Long dwReserved0 As Long dwReserved1 As Long cFileName As String * MAX_PATH cAlternate As String * 14 End Type Private Declare Function FindFirstFile Lib "kernel32" _ Alias "FindFirstFileA" _ (ByVal lpFileName As String, _ lpFindFileData As WIN32_FIND_DATA) As Long Private Declare Function FindClose Lib "kernel32" _ (ByVal hFindFile As Long) As Long

Code: