Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Checking for the Existence of a File.
John has a column of invoice numbers in a worksheet. He has a directory on the network where staff save a PDF of the actual invoice and name it using the same invoice number that is in the worksheet. Each invoice number in the worksheet should have a correspondingly named PDF in the directory on the network. John is looking for a way, within Excel, to check and verify that a PDF really does exist for each invoice number.
There is no way to do this using built-in Excel commands. You can, however, create a macro that will do the checking for you. For instance, consider the following simple user-defined function:
Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, and 2013. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
Function FileExists1(sPath As String)
FileExists1 = Dir(sPath) <> ""
End Function
The routine simply returns a True or False value, based on whether the specified file exists. The value that is passed to the function needs to include a full path and file name. For example, if the file specification (including the path) were in cell A1, you could use the following in a cell:
=FileExists1(A1)
You may not, however, want to put the full path name into the cell. In that case, you could specify it in the actual formula, in this way:
=FileExists1("c:\your\path\here\" & A1 & ".pdf")
Of course, you could instead specify the path in the user-defined function:
Function FileExists2(sFile As String)
sPath = "c:\your\path\here\" & sFile & ".pdf"
FileExists2 = Dir(sPath) <> ""
End Function
With such a function you could easily create a formula in your worksheet that would "flag" any invoices missing from the directory:
=IF(FileExists2(A1),"","Missing Invoice")
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (7402) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Checking for the Existence of a File.
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