dirExt( )

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dirExt( ) is an extended version of the dir( ) method. It fills the array with nine characteristics of specified files: name, size, modified date, modified time, file attribute(s), short (8.3) file name, create date, create time, and access date. Returns the number of files whose characteristics are stored.

Syntax

<oRef>.dirExt([<filename skeleton expC> [, <file attribute list expC>]])

<oRef>

A reference to the array in which you want to store the file information. dirExt( ) will automatically redimension or increase the size of the array to accommodate the file information, if necessary.

<filename skeleton expC>

The file-name pattern (using wildcards) describing the files whose information you want to store to <oRef>.

<file attribute list expC>

The letter or letters D, H, S, and/or V representing one or more file attributes.

If you want to specify a value for <file attribute expC>, you must also specify a value or "*.*" for <filename skeleton expC>.

The meaning of each attribute is as follows:

If you supply more than one letter for <file attribute expC>, include all the letters between one set of quotation marks, for example, aFiles.dirExt("*.*", "HS").

Property of

Array

Description

Use dirExt( ) to store information about files to an array, which is dynamically resized so all returned information fits in the array. The resulting array is always a two-dimensional array, unless there are no files, in which case the array is not modified.

Without <filename skeleton expC>, dirExt( ) stores information about all files in the current directory, unless they are hidden or system files. For example, if you want to return information only on DBF tables, use "*.DBF" as <filename skeleton expC>.

If you want to include directories, hidden files, or system files in the array, use <file attribute expC>. When D, H, or S is included in <file attribute expC>, all directories, hidden files, and/or system files (respectively) that match <filename skeleton expC> are added to the array.

When V is included in <file attribute expC>, dirExt( ) ignores <filename skeleton expC> as well as other characters in the attribute list, and stores the volume label to the first element of the array.

dirExt( ) stores the following information for each file in each row of the array. The data type for each is shown in parentheses:

Column 5 (file attribute) can contain one or more of the following file attributes, in the order shown:

If the file has the attribute, the letter code is in the column. Otherwise, there is a period. For example, a file with none of the attributes would have the following string in column 5:

.....

A read-only, hidden file would have the following string in column 5:

R..H.

Use dir( ) to get basic file information only.