I have a program that prints to the screen. From a DOS window, or with a BAT
file I can redirect the data to a file via the following command "Path Arg1
Arg2 Filename. But, when I execute the BAT file from a VB program, using
either Shell or FollowHyperlink, the output file is created or recreated but
remains empty. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

TomD

Tom,

The example below is an example of a technique that might work for you. In
the example, I use the Exec method of the WScript.Shell object to capture
the output of a program that would typically print to the console screen (in
my example, I use ipconfig). The example simply reads the text stream
output line by line and places the output in Column A of the active sheet
but you could easily use the filesystemobject to create a new text file
somewhere with the contents of the output if that's your ultimate goal.

Steve Yandl

'------------------------------------
Sub FetchIPconfig()

Dim r As Integer
r = 1

Set objShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
Set objWshExec = objShell.Exec("ipconfig")
Set objStdOut = objWshExec.StdOut

Do Until objStdOut.AtEndOfStream
strLine = objStdOut.ReadLine
Cells(r, 1).Value = strLine
r = r + 1
Loop

Columns("A:A").EntireColumn.AutoFit

Set objStdOut = Nothing
Set objWshExec = Nothing
Set objShell = Nothing
End Sub


'-------------------------------------


"TomD" wrote in message
...
I have a program that prints to the screen. From a DOS window, or with a
BAT
file I can redirect the data to a file via the following command "Path
Arg1
Arg2 Filename. But, when I execute the BAT file from a VB program, using
either Shell or FollowHyperlink, the output file is created or recreated
but
remains empty. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

TomD

This is only a guess, but try adding a call to the Command Processor in your
Shell statement, something like this...

Shell Environ("COMSPEC") & " c:\Path\To\BatFile\NameOfBatFile.bat"

Note the space in front of the path string.

--
Rick (MVP - Excel)


"TomD" wrote in message
...
I have a program that prints to the screen. From a DOS window, or with a
BAT
file I can redirect the data to a file via the following command "Path
Arg1
Arg2 Filename. But, when I execute the BAT file from a VB program, using
either Shell or FollowHyperlink, the output file is created or recreated
but
remains empty. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

TomD

HI guys,

Thanks for the help.

I have found a partial solution to my problem as shown below:

varProc = Shell("cmd /c c:\Program.exe arg1 arg2 c:\InputData.txt")

But, the problem is that the Executable will not always be in a Root
Directory, as different people will put it in different places. It is,
however, explicitively implied that it be in the same directory as the
WorkBook.

Therefore I tried this method and it fails:

FileName = ActiveWorkbook.Path & "\Program.exe arg1 arg2 c:\InputData.txt"

Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me,
Tom



"TomD" wrote:

I have a program that prints to the screen. From a DOS window, or with a BAT
file I can redirect the data to a file via the following command "Path Arg1
Arg2 Filename. But, when I execute the BAT file from a VB program, using
either Shell or FollowHyperlink, the output file is created or recreated but
remains empty. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

TomD

Whoops, I forgot to show the resulting command, whic is as follows:

varProc = Shell("cmd /c FileName")


"TomD" wrote:

HI guys,

Thanks for the help.

I have found a partial solution to my problem as shown below:

varProc = Shell("cmd /c c:\Program.exe arg1 arg2 c:\InputData.txt")

But, the problem is that the Executable will not always be in a Root
Directory, as different people will put it in different places. It is,
however, explicitively implied that it be in the same directory as the
WorkBook.

Therefore I tried this method and it fails:

FileName = ActiveWorkbook.Path & "\Program.exe arg1 arg2 c:\InputData.txt"

Thanks in advance for any help that you can give me,
Tom



"TomD" wrote:

I have a program that prints to the screen. From a DOS window, or with a BAT
file I can redirect the data to a file via the following command "Path Arg1
Arg2 Filename. But, when I execute the BAT file from a VB program, using
either Shell or FollowHyperlink, the output file is created or recreated but
remains empty. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

TomD