Can I import multiple text files into one excel sheet? - excel

Question

I have one folder with multiple text files that I add one text file to every day. All text files are in the same format and are pipe delimited.
Is it possible to create code for excel that will automatically import the data from the multiple text files into one worksheet?
I found some code that would import all the text files from the folder, but only if I changed it all to comma delimited first. Also, I could not get it to update if I added files to the folder.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Answer 1

A good way to handle files in general is the 'FileSystemObject'. To make this available in VBA you need to add a reference to it:
(select the Tools\References menu. In the References dialog, select 'Microsoft Scripting Runtime')
The following code example will read all files in a folder, reads their content one line at a time, split each line into | separated bits, and writes theses bits to the active sheet starting at cell A1, one row per line.
Sub ReadFilesIntoActiveSheet()
Dim fso As FileSystemObject
Dim folder As folder
Dim file As file
Dim FileText As TextStream
Dim TextLine As String
Dim Items() As String
Dim i As Long
Dim cl As Range
' Get a FileSystem object
Set fso = New FileSystemObject
' get the directory you want
Set folder = fso.GetFolder("D:\YourDirectory\")
' set the starting point to write the data to
Set cl = ActiveSheet.Cells(1, 1)
' Loop thru all files in the folder
For Each file In folder.Files
' Open the file
Set FileText = file.OpenAsTextStream(ForReading)
' Read the file one line at a time
Do While Not FileText.AtEndOfStream
TextLine = FileText.ReadLine
' Parse the line into | delimited pieces
Items = Split(TextLine, "|")
' Put data on one row in active sheet
For i = 0 To UBound(Items)
cl.Offset(0, i).Value = Items(i)
Next
' Move to next row
Set cl = cl.Offset(1, 0)
Loop
' Clean up
FileText.Close
Next file
Set FileText = Nothing
Set file = Nothing
Set folder = Nothing
Set fso = Nothing
End Sub
the sub is deliberately simplified to remain clear (i hope) and will need work to be made robust (eg add error handling)

Answer 2

Sounds like it'd be easiser to run a script to cycle thru all the files in the directory, create a new file composed of all the files' contents as new lines, and save that as a csv. something like:
import os
basedir='c://your_root_dir'
dest_csv="<path to wherever you want to save final csv>.csv"
dest_list=[]
for root, subs, files in os.walk(basedir):
for f in files:
thisfile=open(basedir+f)
contents=thisfile.readlines()
dest_list.append(contents)
#all that would create a list containing the contents of all the files in the directory
#now we'll write it as a csv
f_csv=open(dest_csv,'w')
for i in range(len(dest_list)):
f_csv.write(dest_list[i])
f_csv.close()
You could save a script like that somewhere and run it each day, then open the resulting csv in excel. This assumes that you want to get the data from each file in a particular directory, and that all the files you need are in one directory.

Answer 3

You can use Schema.ini ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms709353(VS.85).aspx ), Jet driver and Union query, with any luck.