asked on

Detecting existence of a directory

I want to check a specified drive for the existence of a directory.
If the directory doesn't currently exist I will then create it. If it does exist I will not worry about creating it.

How do I go about checking for the presence of a directory?

Brendt Hess

This code can be used.

Dim S$
S = Dir("C:\TEMP\.",vbDirectory) ' change to match your directory. The period is important

If S = "." Then
' It's a directory, and it exists!
Else
S=Dir("C:\TEMP")
If S <> "" Then
' some file of that name exists!
Else
' MkDir "C:\TEMP"
End If
End If

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Erick37

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Jagertee

Function ExistPath(MyPath) As Boolean
On Error Resume Next

Dim x as String

'save current directory
x = CurDir

'try to change to MyPath
ChDir MyPath
If Err=0 Then
'yes, it's there!
ExistPath = True
End If

'back to current directory
ChDir x

Err = 0
End Function

mallards

ASKER

Quicker and more efficient way to do it. see Erick37

mallards

ASKER

Great! What efficient code. Thanks alot!

Erick37

Thanks. Glad it helped!

Brendt Hess

Just a small warning - if a file exists with the same name as your proposed directory, then the test will return 'Directory Exists' (as of VB5 - Is this fixed in VB6?)

Erick37

I think it's an operating system issue. In Win95, you cannot have a file with the same name of a directory in the same level.

Brendt Hess

I know that - what I was noting was that, even though you specify vbDirectory on the DIR call, it will still return any files AND directories that match your spec, as if vbDirectory had not been specified. This is a bug.

So, if I wanted to find out if the directory C:\Autoexec.BAT existed, the call would happily return that there was a directory of that name. Try to ChDir to there, and... Error!