Selva’s Site

by Selva V Pasupathy

Excel does not have a menu command to export data automatically to a text file such that the text file is exported with both quotation marks and commas as delimiters. For example, there is no command to automatically create a text file that contains the following:

copy the following code in the code window of module. Remember, before running this macro, you need to select the area which you want to save as text file with comma delimiters.

Sub ExportCommaDelimitedText()
    Dim DestFile As String
    Dim FileNum As Integer
    Dim ColumnCount As Integer
    Dim RowCount As Integer

    ‘ Prompt user for destination file name.
    DestFile = InputBox(“Enter the destination filename” & _
      Chr(10) & “(with complete path and extension):”, _
      “Quote-Comma Exporter”)
    ‘ Obtain next free file handle number.
    FileNum = FreeFile()

    ‘ Turn error checking off.
    On Error Resume Next

    ‘ Attempt to open destination file for output.
    Open DestFile For Output As #FileNum
    ‘ If an error occurs report it and end.
    If Err <> 0 Then
      MsgBox “Cannot open filename ” & DestFile
      End
    End If

    ‘ Turn error checking on.
    On Error GoTo 0

    ‘ Loop for each row in selection.
    For RowCount = 1 To Selection.Rows.Count
      ‘ Loop for each column in selection.
      For ColumnCount = 1 To Selection.Columns.Count

         ‘ Write current cell’s text to file with quotation marks.
         Print #FileNum, “”"” & Selection.Cells(RowCount, _
            ColumnCount).Text & “”"”;
         ‘ Check if cell is in last column.
         If ColumnCount = Selection.Columns.Count Then
            ‘ If so, then write a blank line.
            Print #FileNum,
         Else
            ‘ Otherwise, write a comma.
            Print #FileNum, “,”;
         End If
      ‘ Start next iteration of ColumnCount loop.
      Next ColumnCount
    ‘ Start next iteration of RowCount loop.
    Next RowCount

    ‘ Close destination file.
    Close #FileNum
End Sub