Unicode string to flat file from vba

Question

I want to store a unicode string in a flat file on a windows box from an excel/vba macro. The macro converts normal string to unicode representation, need to store it in a file and retrieve later.

Answer 1

As mentioned, you can use the Microsoft Scripting Runtime (scrrun.dll). I have posted some examples below. Some people also like the native file IO features. There is an extensive (and fairly comprehensive thread) thread here: http://www.xtremevbtalk.com/showthread.php?t=123814

However for Unicode files it's probably the least painful to use Textstreams:)

Public Sub StringToTextFile(ByVal path As String, ByVal value As String)
    'Requires reference to scrrun.dll
    Dim fso As Scripting.FileSystemObject
    Dim ts As Scripting.TextStream
    Set fso = New Scripting.FileSystemObject
    Set ts = fso.CreateTextFile(path, False, True)
    ts.Write value
    ts.Close
End Sub

Public Sub LazyMansWay(ByVal path As String, ByVal value As String)
    'Reference counting will cause the objects to be destroyed. The termination
    'events of the classes will cause the connections to be closed.
    CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject").CreateTextFile(path, False, True).Write value
End Sub

Answer 2

Add a reference to "Microsoft Scripting Runtime" COM component (scrrun.dll).

It has all the classes (specifically FileSystemObject/TextStream) to create/read/write files.

Answer 3

The best solution I could figure is read the string in to a byte array and write each byte to a binary file

Private Function WriteBinaryFile(ByRef szData As String)
    Dim bytData() As Byte
    Dim lCount As Long

    bytData = szData
    Open PwdFileName For Binary As #1
        For lCount = LBound(bytData) To UBound(bytData)
            Put #1, , bytData(lCount)
        Next lCount
    Close #1
End Function

Read it back by opening the file in binary mode and reading each byte into a byte array and then converting it to a string.

Sub ReadBinaryFile(ByRef gszData As String)
Dim aryBytes() As Byte
Dim bytInput As Byte
Dim intFileNumber
Dim intFilePos

intFileNumber = FreeFile

Open PwdFileName For Binary As #intFileNumber
intFilePos = 1

Do
    Get #intFileNumber, intFilePos, bytInput
    If EOF(intFileNumber) = True Then Exit Do
    ReDim Preserve aryBytes(intFilePos - 1)
    aryBytes(UBound(aryBytes)) = bytInput
    intFilePos = intFilePos + 1
Loop While EOF(intFileNumber) = False
Close #intFileNumber

gszData = aryBytes
End Sub