by Dave Hng (4 Submissions)
Category: Files/File Controls/Input/Output
Compatability: Visual Basic 3.0
Difficulty: Unknown Difficulty
Date Added: Wed 3rd February 2021
Rating: 
(21 Votes)
Uses the FindFile, FindNextFile, and SearchPath API functions to quickly find a file on your hard drive. Runs faster than methods which use Dir$.
Inputs
Filename - Filename to search for.
Path - The path to start searching from.
Assumes
None, if you want to find out what the API does exactly, read the Win32SDK. It's great for stuff like that!
Code Returns
Returns the full path to the filename, if it found it. Otherwise, returns an empty string ("").
Side Effects
Since the function's recursive, i guess you could hit a stack overflow if you had an obscene number of folders to search through :)
API Declarations'Lots here.. :)
Public Const MAX_PATH As Long = 260
Public Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_ARCHIVE = &H20
Public Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_COMPRESSED = &H800
Public Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY = &H10
Public Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN = &H2
Public Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL = &H80
Public Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_READONLY = &H1
Public Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SYSTEM = &H4
Public Const FILE_ATTRIBUTE_TEMPORARY = &H100
Type FileTime
dwLowDateTime As Long
dwHighDateTime As Long
End Type
Public Type WIN32_FIND_DATA
dwFileAttributes As Long
ftCreationTime As FileTime
ftLastAccessTime As FileTime
ftLastWriteTime As FileTime
nFileSizeHigh As Long
nFileSizeLow As Long
dwReserved0 As Long
dwReserved1 As Long
cFileName As String * MAX_PATH
cAlternate As String * 14
End Type
Public Declare Function FindFirstFile Lib "kernel32" Alias "FindFirstFileA" (ByVal lpFileName As String, lpFindFileData As WIN32_FIND_DATA) As Long
Public Declare Function FindNextFile Lib "kernel32" Alias "FindNextFileA" (ByVal hFindFile As Long, lpFindFileData As WIN32_FIND_DATA) As Long
Public Declare Function FindClose Lib "kernel32" (ByVal hFindFile As Long) As Long
Public Declare Function SearchPath Lib "kernel32" Alias "SearchPathA" (ByVal lpPath As String, ByVal lpFileName As String, ByVal lpExtension As String, ByVal nBufferLength As Long, ByVal lpBuffer As String, ByVal lpFilePart As String) As Long
VBcodersPublic Function FindFile(ByVal FileName As String, ByVal Path As String) As String
Dim hFile As Long, ts As String, WFD As WIN32_FIND_DATA
Dim result As Long, sAttempt As String, szPath As String
szPath = GetRDP(Path) & "*.*" & Chr$(0)
'Note: Inline function here
'----Starts----
Dim szPath2 As String, szFilename As String, dwBufferLen As Long, szBuffer As String, lpFilePart As String
'Set variables
szPath2 = Path & Chr$(0)
szFilename = FileName & Chr$(0)
szBuffer = String$(MAX_PATH, 0)
dwBufferLen = Len(szBuffer)
'Ask windows if it can find a file matching the filename you gave it.
result = SearchPath(szPath2, szFilename, vbNullString, dwBufferLen, szBuffer, lpFilePart)
'----Ends----
If result Then
FindFile = StripNull(szBuffer)
Exit Function
End If
'Start asking windows for files.
hFile = FindFirstFile(szPath, WFD)
Do
If WFD.dwFileAttributes And FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY Then
'Hey look, we've got a directory!
ts = StripNull(WFD.cFileName)
If Not (ts = "." Or ts = "..") Then
'Don't look for hidden or system directories
If Not (WFD.dwFileAttributes And (FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN Or FILE_ATTRIBUTE_SYSTEM)) Then
'Search directory recursively
sAttempt = FindFile(FileName, GetRDP(Path) & ts)
If sAttempt <> "" Then
FindFile = sAttempt
Exit Do
End If
End If
End If
End If
WFD.cFileName = ""
result = FindNextFile(hFile, WFD)
Loop Until result = 0
FindClose hFile
End Function
Public Function StripNull(ByVal WhatStr As String) As String
Dim pos As Integer
pos = InStr(WhatStr, Chr$(0))
If pos > 0 Then
StripNull = Left$(WhatStr, pos - 1)
Else
StripNull = WhatStr
End If
End Function
Public Function GetRDP(ByVal sPath As String) As String
'Adds a backslash on the end of a path, if required.
If sPath = "" Then Exit Function
If Right$(sPath, 1) = "\" Then GetRDP = sPath: Exit Function
GetRDP = sPath & "\"
End Function
