Whenever you have a question about a keyword in VB, the first thing you
should do is click anywhere on the word and press F1 to get VB's help file
for that keyword. The Space function returns the number of spaces (character
with the ASCII value of 32) called for by the value you pass into it (in
this case, you are right, the length of the file).

Rick


"ker_01" wrote in message
...
Rick-
This looks fabulous- Just to help me learn, I understand everything except
the use of the 'space' keyword:

TotalFile = Space(LOF(FileNum))

It appears that this is getting the total file length (length of string to
load in the next line), but I'm not clear what the 'space' keyword is
doing for the statement. Can you educate me with a brief explanation?

Thank you!
Keith

"Rick Rothstein (MVP - VB)" wrote in
message ...
In case you come back to this thread, here is a general function (with
comments) that will handle any normally delimited text file (Line Feed as
from a UNIX or Linux system, Carriage Return as from a Mac, or Carriage
Feed followed by a Line Feed which is an normal Windows type file). You
pass it the full path and filename for your file and it returns an array
containing each individual line.

Function SplitFileIntoLines(PathFileName As String) As String()
Dim X As Long
Dim FileNum As Long
Dim TotalFile As String
Dim Lines() As String
' Better to let VB select the file channel number than to hard code it.
FileNum = FreeFile
' Load entire file into the TotalFile variable in "one fell swoop".
Open PathFileName For Binary As #FileNum
TotalFile = Space(LOF(FileNum))
Get #FileNum, , TotalFile
Close #FileNum
' Replace CarriageReturns with Line Feeds... this will help
' handle normal Windows files AND files generated by a Mac.
TotalFile = Replace(TotalFile, vbCr, vbLf)
' Now, if it was a normar Windows file, there will be two
' Line Feeds following each other, so we reduce them to just one.
TotalFile = Replace(TotalFile, vbLf & vbLf, vbLf)
' Now that the entire file is now contained in the TotalFile
' variable as a Line Feed delimited file, let's return those
' individual lines in an array for use by the calling code.
SplitFileIntoLines = Split(TotalFile, vbLf)
End Function

To see how to use it, consider this sample macros...

Sub Test()
Dim X As Long
Dim FileLines() As String
FileLines = SplitFileIntoLines("c:\temp\Book1.txt")
For X = 0 To UBound(FileLines)
Debug.Print FileLines(X)
Next
End Sub

Rick


"ker_01" wrote in message
...
Rick-

Thank you for your response, explanation, and sample code. For this
project I will import several different files, but their sources and
formats are so different I'm making a separate sub for each. I'll adapt
the snippet you've provided, and post back if I have any problems or
questions.

Thank you!!
Keith

"Rick Rothstein (MVP - VB)" wrote
in message ...
In the VB world, the end of line marker is a Carriage Return followed
by a Line Feed... if your lines are not delimited with this, Line Input
does not see your individual lines of text as individual lines. I'm
guessing your lines are delimited by simple Line Feeds. If this is the
case, and if this code will only be used for files generated in the
same way as the one you are currently working with, you could do away
with the Do-Loop, read the entire file into a variable and then Split
the text into individual lines using the Split function with vbLf, or
Chr(10) if you prefer, as the delimiter... this will produce a
zero-based array that you can loop through element by element (which
will then be line-by-line) and do whatever you need to. For example...

Dim X As Long
Dim TotalFile As String
Dim Paragraphs() As String
Line Input #1, TotalFile
Paragraphs = Split(TotalFile, vbLf)
For X = 0 To UBound(Paragraphs)
' Do whatever you need to on each line in your file
Debug.Print Paragraphs(X)
Next

Remember, this code will only work for Line Feed delimited text... if
your code could have to handle both Line Feed delimited text and text
delimited with Windows' normal line delimiter (a Carriage Return
followed by a Line Feed), then write back and I'll generalize the code
for you.

Rick


"ker_01" wrote in message
...

In Excel, I recorded a macro while importing a text file (because
that's the easiest way I've found to capture the fixed-width values
for my fields). It imported just fine.

Now I'm using VBA to import that same text file a line at a time and
parse each line for data values. I was having trouble (after the first
line, the code would quit). I used a msgbox to display that first line
prior to parsing- and it showed me the whole file! (or as much as
could fit in a msgbox, anyway).

So somehow, on importing the text file via the menu (file/open), Excel
knew that there were multiple lines and put the data in multiple rows.
However, when I use:

Do While Not EOF(1)
Line Input #1, LineofText
MsgBox LineofText
Loop

It opens the entire file as one line.

Clearly I'm missing something here, but I'm not sure what. Any
suggestions?

Thank you,
Keith