Join n outlook items into one new object with excel vba - excel

Question

I am looking for emails from person x in n outlook folders in Excel with VBA. What I want to do is find the most recent item of the n results (or of more folders).
I considered merging the n objects, sort by ReceivedTime and then get the top item, but I can't manage merging them, or find the most recent of the n objects.
Example is for 2 folders, 2 items:
Dim olApp As Outlook.Application
Dim olNs As Outlook.Namespace
Dim olFldr As Outlook.Folder 'to be the inbox
Dim olArchive As Outlook.Folder 'my archive folder
Dim olItems As Outlook.Items
Dim olArchiveItems As Outlook.Items
Dim i As Long
Dim emailStr As String
Dim filter As String
Dim olSentFldr as Outlook.Folder
Set olApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set olNs = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set olFldr = olNs.GetDefaultFolder(6) ' olFolderInbox
Set olArchive = olNs.Folders(CStr(olNs.Accounts.Item(1)))
Set olSentFldr = olNs.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderSentMail)
emailStr = "somebody#outlook.com"
filter = "[SenderEmailAddress] = """ & emailStr & """"
Set olItems = olFldr.Items.Restrict(filter)
Set olArchiveItems = olArchive.Items.Restrict(filter)
olItems.Sort "[ReceivedTime]", True
olArchiveItems.Sort "[ReceivedTime]", True
olSentFldr.Sort "[ReceivedTime]", True
Dim olNew as Object
` below hypothetical solution that does not work yet--------------
olNew = merge(olItems(1), olArchiveItems(1))
olNew.Sort "[ReceivedTime]", True
myOutcome = olNew(1)

Answer 1

You can compare search results.
Option Explicit
Private Sub mostRecentItem_MultipleSearches()
' Early Binding - requires reference to Microsoft Outlook XX.X Object Library
Dim olApp As Outlook.Application
Dim olNs As Outlook.namespace
Dim olFldr As Outlook.Folder 'to be the inbox
Dim olSentFldr As Outlook.Folder
Dim olFldrItems As Outlook.Items
Dim olSentFldrItems As Outlook.Items
Dim olItemRecent As Object
Dim i As Long
Dim emailStr As String
Dim filter As String
Set olApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set olNs = olApp.GetNamespace("MAPI")
' valid with early binding
Set olFldr = olNs.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox) ' 6 if late binding
Set olFldrItems = olFldr.Items
Debug.Print "olFldrItems.count: " & olFldrItems.count
emailStr = "somebody#outlook.com"
filter = "[SenderEmailAddress] = """ & emailStr & """"
olFldrItems.Sort "[ReceivedTime]", True
Set olFldrItems = olFldrItems.Restrict(filter)
Debug.Print "olFldrItems.count: " & olFldrItems.count
Set olItemRecent = olFldrItems(1)
'olItemRecent.Display
Set olSentFldr = olNs.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderSentMail)
Set olSentFldrItems = olSentFldr.Items
olSentFldrItems.Sort "[SentOn]", True
Debug.Print "olSentFldrItems.count: " & olSentFldrItems.count
Debug.Print olItemRecent.ReceivedTime
Debug.Print olSentFldrItems(1).SentOn
If olItemRecent.ReceivedTime < olSentFldrItems(1).SentOn Then
Set olItemRecent = olSentFldrItems(1)
End If
olItemRecent.Display
End Sub

Answer 2

First of all, you need to Sort collection before running the Restrict of Find/FindNext methods if you want to get items ordered.
olItems.Sort "[ReceivedTime]", True
olArchiveItems.Sort "[ReceivedTime]", True
olSentFldr.Sort "[ReceivedTime]", True
filter = "[SenderEmailAddress] = """ & emailStr & """"
Set olItems = olItems.Restrict(filter)
Set olArchiveItems = olArchiveItems.Restrict(filter)
Try using not a straight comparison in the search string:
filter = Chr(34) & "[SenderEmailAddress]" & Chr(34) & " like '%" & emailStr &"'"`
It looks like you need to use the AdvancedSearch method of the Application class which performs a search based on a specified DAV Searching and Locating (DASL) search string. You can run the search in multiple folders at once. So, there is no need to run the search separately for each folder:
Set olItems = olFldr.Items.Restrict(filter)
Set olArchiveItems = olArchive.Items.Restrict(filter)
You can run it once for all folders and the search is performed in the background. The key benefits of using the AdvancedSearch method in Outlook are:
The search is performed in another thread. You don’t need to run another thread manually since the AdvancedSearch method runs it automatically in the background.
Possibility to search for any item types: mail, appointment, calendar, notes etc. in any location, i.e. beyond the scope of a certain folder. The Restrict and Find/FindNext methods can be applied to a particular Items collection (see the Items property of the Folder class in Outlook).
Full support for DASL queries (custom properties can be used for searching too). To improve the search performance, Instant Search keywords can be used if Instant Search is enabled for the store (see the IsInstantSearchEnabled property of the Store class).
You can stop the search process at any moment using the Stop method of the Search class.
Read more about the AdvancedSearch method in the Advanced search in Outlook programmatically: C#, VB.NET article.