Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. 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: Using Seek In a Macro.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 16, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021
Several other tips in other issues of ExcelTips discuss opening, reading, writing, appending, and closing text files from within a macro. Another command associated with sequential text files is the Seek command. If used on an open file, Seek positions the internal file pointer at a specific character number in the file. The following code fragment is an example of how it is used:
Open "DOSTEXT.DAT" for Input as #1 iFileLen = LOF(1) Seek 1, iFileLen / 2
These program lines use the LOF function to determine the length of the file. The last line then positions the internal file pointer halfway through the file. All subsequent reading or writing of the file will take place from that position.
You can also use Seek as a function to determine your current position within a text file. This is what this code does:
iCurPos = Seek(1)
This command leaves the internal file pointer where it was but sets iCurPos to a value representing how many characters into the file the pointer is. The iCurPos value is the position at which all subsequent reading and writing of the file will take place.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9367) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Using Seek In a Macro.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021. 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:
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