* (asterisk) – It represents any number of characters.There are three wildcard characters in Excel: For example, if you want the names of all the files with the prefix 2019 in it, you can do that using wildcard characters. When you have a specific suffix/prefix in filenames and you want to get the names of these files/folders/directories.You want to get the file names of a particular file type (such as.Note that you can not use these when working with VBA in Macintosh. If you’re working with Windows, you can also use the wildcard characters in the DIR function. Using Wildcard Characters with DIR Function Specifies directories or folders in addition to files with no attributes. Specifies volume label if any other attributed is specified, vbVolume is ignored. Specifies system files in addition to files with no attributes. Specifies hidden files in addition to files with no attributes. Specifies read-only files in addition to files with no attributes. (Default) Specifies files with no attributes. For example, if you want a list of all hidden files or read-only files (along with files with no attributes), you need to specify that in this argument.Īttributes available to use in VBA DIR function (you can use one or more of these): Constant You can use this argument to specify some attributes and DIR function will return the file names based on those attributes. attributes: This is an optional argument.If pathname is not found, VBA DIR function returns a zero-length string (“”) This can be the file name, folder name, or directory name. pathname: This is an optional argument.Covered in Example 3 and 4 later in this tutorial. When no more file names match, Dir returns a zero-length string (“”). To get any additional file names that match pathname, call Dir again with no arguments. Now if you want to get the names of the second, third, fourth files as well, you can use the DIR function again (covered later as an example).ĭir returns the first file name that matches the pathname. When you use DIR function once, it returns the first file name in a folder. What if I want to get the names of all the Excel files in the folder (or all the files – be it Excel file or not)? To give you an example, if you have an Excel file in a folder, you can use the VBA DIR function to get the name of that Excel file (or any other type of file).

Use VBA DIR function when you want to get the name of the file or a folder, using their path name. Example 7 – Get Names of All Excel File in a Folder.Example 6 – Get the First Excel File from a Folder.Example 5 – Get the Names of All the Sub-Folders within a Folder.Example 4 – Get the Names of All Files in a Folder.Example 3 – Get the Names of All File and Folders in a Directory.Example 2 – Check if a Directory Exists or Not (and create if it doesn’t).Example 1 – Getting the File Name from its Path.Using Wildcard Characters with DIR Function.

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