Question

I’m trying to count the number of lines in a text file using VBScript. I have managed to do this without a problem for a text file with a fixed name. EG: “C:\Orig\sample.txt”
However, our filenames change daily, EG: “C:\Orig\sample*todaysdate*.txt”

I have looked high and low for a way to ‘read’ a file with a variable name and have had no luck.

What I have so far for a fixed file name is:

Dim oFso, oReg, sData, lCount, linesum 
Const ForReading = 1, sPath = "C:\Orig\sample.txt" 
Set oReg = New RegExp 
Set oFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") 
sData = oFso.OpenTextFile(sPath, ForReading).ReadAll 
With oReg 
    .Global = True 
    .Pattern = "\r\n" 'vbCrLf 
    lCount = .Execute(sData).Count + 1

End With 
WScript.Echo("The total number of lines including the header is " & lCount) 
Set oFso = Nothing 
Set oReg = Nothing

This works perfectly well, but I just cannot find the correct syntax for a variable file name.

If it is of any help, the file I’m looking to interrogate will be the ONLY file in the containing folder.

Is anybody able to offer any assistance? Many thanks.

---

I have now tried the following:

Dim objFso, objReg, sData, lCount 
Const ForReading = 1 
sPath = "C:\Orig" 

Set objFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")  
Set objFolder = objFso.GetFolder(sPath) 
For Each objFile in objFolder.Files 
    Set objReg = New RegExp  
    sData = objFso.OpenTextFile(sPath, ForReading).ReadAll
    With objReg  
        .Global = True  
        .Pattern = "\r\n" 'vbCrLf  
        lCount = .Execute(sData).Count + 1 

    End With  
    WScript.Echo("The total number of lines including the header is " & lCount)  
    Set objFso = Nothing  
    Set objReg = Nothing
    Set objFolder = Nothing
    set sData = Nothing
Next 

But on line 9 I am getting a ‘Permission denied’ error. I have checked folder permissions and file permissions and I have full rights.

Does anybody have any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Loop through the files in the folder instead. There’s no need to name the file directly.

Dim oFso, oReg, sData, lCount, linesum 
Const ForReading = 1
sPath = "C:\Orig\sample\"

Set oFso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") 
Set objFolder = objFso.GetFolder(sPath)
For Each objFile in objFolder.Files
    Set oReg = New RegExp 
    sData = oFso.OpenTextFile(sPath, ForReading).ReadAll 
    With oReg 
        .Global = True 
        .Pattern = "\r\n" 'vbCrLf 
        lCount = .Execute(sData).Count + 1

    End With 
    WScript.Echo("The total number of lines including the header is " & lCount) 
    Set oFso = Nothing 
    Set oReg = Nothing
Next