Question

So i’m new to working with vba in access and i’m having trouble getting this code to work. What it is suppose to do is take a selected text file and read the original file into a list box. Then there is a second button that when pressed will convert the text file from a pipe delimited file into a tab delimited file and then show the changed file into a new listbox.

Option Compare Database
Option Explicit


Function GetFilenameFromPath(ByVal strPath As String) As String
' Returns the rightmost characters of a string upto but not including the rightmost '\'
' e.g. 'c:\winnt\win.ini' returns 'win.ini'

    If Right$(strPath, 1) <> "\" And Len(strPath) > 0 Then
        GetFilenameFromPath = GetFilenameFromPath(Left$(strPath, Len(strPath) - 1)) + Right$(strPath, 1)
    End If
End Function

Private Sub Command0_Click()
 Dim fdlg As Office.FileDialog

    Dim pipe_file As Variant
    Dim FileName As String
    Dim fn As Integer
    Dim varFile As Variant
    Dim FilePath As String

    Me.OrigFile.RowSource = ""
    Me.ConvertFile.RowSource = ""
    Me.FileName = ""
    Me.FilePath = ""
    FileName = ""



    Set fdlg = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFilePicker)
    With fdlg
        .AllowMultiSelect = False
        .Title = "Select pipe delimited file"
        .Filters.Clear
        .Filters.Add "Text Files", "*.txt"

        If .Show = True Then
            For Each varFile In .SelectedItems
                FileName = GetFilenameFromPath(varFile)
                FilePath = varFile
            Next varFile
            Me.FileName = FileName
            Me.FilePath = FilePath

            fn = FreeFile

            Open FileName For Input As #fn
            Do While Not EOF(fn)
                Line Input #fn, pipe_file
                Me.OrigFile.AddItem pipe_file
            Loop

            Close #fn
        Else
            MsgBox "You clicked Cancel in the file dialog box."
        End If
    End With
End Sub

Private Sub Convert_File_Click()
'ByVal OutputFile As String)'
On Error GoTo error1
Dim pipe_file As Variant
Dim ThisString As String
Dim NewString As String
Dim A As Integer
Dim InputFile As String
InputFile = Me.FilePath
Open InputFile For Input As #1

Const FileName = "c:\outputfile.txt"
Dim my_filenumber As Integer
my_filenumber = FreeFile
Open FileName For Output As #2
'Open OutputFile For Output As #2'

While Not EOF(1)
NewString = ""
Line Input #1, ThisString
For A = 1 To Len(ThisString)
If Mid(ThisString, A, 1) = "|" Then
NewString = NewString & Chr$(9)
Else
NewString = NewString & Mid(ThisString, A, 1)
End If
Next

Print #2, ThisString
Wend
Do While Not EOF(2)
Line Input #2, pipe_file
Me.ConvertFile.AddItem pipe_file
Loop
Close #2
Close #1
Exit Sub
error1:
Close #1
Close #2
End Sub

This is what i have so far now my issue is pertaining to the second button or Convert_File_Click() convertfile is the listbox i’m trying to update and filepath is a textbox that hold the filepath of the textfile that is selected.
Any help is appreciated, Thanks!

Answer 1

Okay so after spending some time researching it and a lot of time debugging i finally figured it out so i figured i’d post my results in case somebody else ever needs help with this

    Function PipeToTab(ByVal OriginalText As String) As String
'Runs though current line of text stored in original text'
 On Error GoTo error1
 Dim ThisString As String, NewString As String, a As Integer
 NewString = ""

For a = 1 To Len(OriginalText)
'checks to see if current char is white space and if it is removes it
    If Mid(OriginalText, a, 1) = " " Then
    'checks to see if current char is | and if it is changes it to char$(9) (tab)
    ElseIf Mid(OriginalText, a, 1) = "|" Then
        NewString = NewString & Chr$(9)
    Else
        NewString = NewString & Mid(OriginalText, a, 1)
    End If
Next
    PipeToTab = NewString
 Exit Function
error1:
MsgBox (Err.Description)

 End Function`

This is the function i came up with to convert a line of text from the text file from “|” to tabs as well as removing any additional white space.

    `Private Sub Convert_File_Click()
    On Error GoTo error1
    Dim pipe_file As Variant
    Dim ThisString As String
    Dim a As Integer
    Dim rfs, rts, InputFile, wfs, wts, OutputFile As Object
    Dim InputFileName, OutputFileName, OriginalText, updatedText As String

    ' File initialization
    'open the original source file and create the output file with the name desired from textbox.
    InputFileName = Me.FilePath 'filepath is a textbox that holds the location 
    'and name of where you want the textfile to go 
        Set rfs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
        Set InputFile = rfs.GetFile(InputFileName)


    'open the text streams
        Set rts = InputFile.OpenAsTextStream(1, -2) 'Read
        Set wts = OutputFile.OpenAsTextStream(8, -2) 'Append

    'then put line into conversion function and get the updated text
    'move onto the next line until EOF

        While rts.AtEndofStream = False
             OriginalText = rts.ReadLine 'read current line of file
             If OriginalText <> Empty Then
               updatedText = PipeToTab(OriginalText)
               wts.WriteLine updatedText 'put updated text into newly created file(output file)
            Else
            End If
        Wend`
'Output file clean up
    wts.Close
'Input File clean up
    rts.Close


End If
'clear out filestreams
    Set OutputFile = Nothing
    Set wfs = Nothing
    Set wts = Nothing
    Set InputFile = Nothing
    Set rfs = Nothing
    Set rts = Nothing

Exit Sub
error1:
' File Clean up
rts.Close
Set InputFile = Nothing
Set rfs = Nothing
Set rts = Nothing

'Output
wts.Close
Set OutputFile = Nothing
Set wfs = Nothing
Set wts = Nothing
MsgBox (Err.Description)
End Sub

This here is the button used to convert the text file. I used text streams and a line reader in order to send each line of the text file into the pipe to tab function.