Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. 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: Removing a Directory.

Removing a Directory

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated March 29, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365


In other issues of ExcelTips you learn how to create a directory from within a macro. There are times that programmers (even macro programmers) create directories to store temporary files. When they are done, the files are deleted, and the directory is removed. To remove a directory, you use the RmDir command in your macro, as shown here:

RmDir DirName

where DirName is the full pathname of the directory you want to delete. If you do not use a string variable to specify the directory name, then DirName must be enclosed in quotes. If there are any files in the directory or any subdirectories contained in the subdirectory, the command fails with an error. (This means you should delete all the files and subdirectories before trying to remove a directory with RmDir.)

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 (9935) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Removing a Directory.

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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Understanding the Select Case Structure

One of the powerful programming structures available in VBA is the Select Case structure. This tip explains how you can ...

Discover More

Understanding and Using Bookmarks

Bookmarks are a great feature you can use to mark the location of text or to mark a position within a document. They can ...

Discover More

Links to Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks in a worksheet can be helpful or essential, depending on the nature of your data. If you create a link to a ...

Discover More

Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Delimited Text-to-Columns in a Macro

The Text-to-Columns tool is an extremely powerful feature that allows you to divide data in a variety of ways. Excel even ...

Discover More

Finding Workbooks Containing Macros

Workbooks can contain macros, or not. It is entirely up to you whether they do or not, but at some future time you might ...

Discover More

Disabled Macros

Do your macros seem to be disabled on your new machine? It could be because of the security settings in Excel. Here's ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 5 - 3?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.