VB & VBA in a Nutshell: The Language

Get Statement

Named Arguments

No

Syntax

Get [#]filenumber, [recnumber], varname

filenumber

Use: Required

Data Type: Integer

Any valid file number.

recnumber

Use: Optional

Data Type: Variant (Long)

Record or byte number.

varname

Use: Required

Data Type: Any

The variable into which the data is read.

Description

Copies data from a file on disk into a program variable.

Rules at a Glance

• For files opened in random mode, recnumber refers to the record number in the file.

• For files opened in binary mode, recnumber refers to the byte number within the file.

• The number of bytes read by the Get statement is governed by the data type of varname.

• The position of the first record or byte within a file is always 1.

• Even if recnumber is omitted, you must use the delimiting commas (i.e., Get #1,,myVar).

• When a record or number of bytes is read from a file using Get, the file pointer automatically moves to the record or byte following the one just read. You can therefore read all data from a random or binary file sequentially by omitting recnumber, as this snippet shows:

  Dim hFile as long
  hFile = FreeFile()
  Open sFileName For Random as #hFile
  Do While Not EOF(1)
     Get #1,,myVar
  Loop
  Close #hFile

• Get is used most commonly to read data from files written with the Put statement.

Programming Tips and Gotchas

• If you are using a Len clause with the Open statement and reading data from a random access file with the Get statement, you must be aware of the total number of bytes that the Get statement reads ...