Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. 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: Appending to a Non-Excel Text File.

Appending to a Non-Excel Text File

by Allen Wyatt
(last updated June 23, 2016)

4

When using a macro to write information to a text file, you may want to add information to an existing file, rather than creating a new text file from scratch. To do this, all you need to do is open the file for Append rather than Output. The following code shows this process:

Open "MyFile.Dat" For Append As #1
For J = 1 to NewValues
    Print #1, UserVals(OrigVals + J)
Next J
Close #1

When the file is opened for Append mode, any new information is added to the end of the file, without disturbing the existing contents.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9206) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Appending to a Non-Excel Text File.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is six minus 5?

2016-06-23 09:28:22

allen@sharonparq.com

Sure. Here you go:

Open "MyFile.Dat" For Append As #1
Print #1, "Hello World"
Close #1

-Allen

2016-06-23 07:24:49

Lisa Smith

I'm a little confused by your code sample

Could you give an example that would append "Hello World" to a text file?

Lisa

2013-12-16 11:23:48

Duncan

Ref Barry's comment aboutr REDIM being slow, would it not be possible to start by doing a "large" Redim to provide plenty of spare space in the array (for instance doubling its size), then keep track of how many items have been added so that you can do another big Redim when needed, etc. Then at end of file, when you know the total number of items, you do a final Redim down to the actual number needed (or if that isn't allowed, copy the filled array elements into a new array of the correct size and delete the original). or you could just leave the empty elements.

2013-12-14 07:03:03

Barry Fitzpatrick

Please this is not compatible with companion tips for creating and reading back text file

http://excelribbon.tips.net/T008885_Saving_Information_in_a_Text_File.html

http://excelribbon.tips.net/T011115_Getting_Input_from_a_Text_File.html

This is because the Append doesn't update the first entry which indicates the total number of lines of data in the file, and then when inputting the data from the file the appended data will be ignored.

Using the EOF function obviates the need to have the number of lines parameter at all. As the total number of lines is unknown the array will have to be Redimensioned for each line inputted (which can be slow, and isn't terribly efficient) using the "Preserve" parameter. Or read the file twice, once to count the number of lines, and so dimension the array, and the second time to populate the array with the read data.

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