VBA GetAttr Function

GetAttr Description

Returns an integer that represents the attributes of a file, folder, or directory.

Simple GetAttr Examples

MsgBox GetAttr("C:\")
MsgBox GetAttr("D:\Test.txt")

This will return some integer according to settings of the file/folder/drive.

If the path name doesn’t exist, it will occur an Run-time error ’53’: File not found.

GetAttr Syntax

In the VBA Editor, you can type  “GetAttr(” to see the syntax for the GetAttr Function:

The GetAttr function contains an argument:

PathName: A string expression representing a file/folder/drive.

Return values

The value returned by GetAttr is the sum of the following attribute values:

Examples of Excel VBA GetAttr Function

MsgBox GetAttr("C:\Program Files (x86)")

MsgBox GetAttr("C:\")

While testing with various folder/file/drive, it will return various numbers like 1, 2, 5, 22 and so on.

For example, in case of 22, it means vbDirectory(16) + vbSystem(4) + vbHidden(2).

To get the attributes settings corresponding with each number, you can use the following function.

Function GetAttributeSettings(attr As VbFileAttribute) As String
    Dim strSettings As String
    strSettings = ""
    If (attr And vbDirectory) = vbDirectory Then strSettings = strSettings & "&Directory"
    If (attr And vbVolume) = vbVolume Then strSettings = strSettings & "&Volumn"
    If (attr And vbAlias) = vbAlias Then strSettings = strSettings & "&Alias"
    If (attr And vbArchive) = vbArchive Then strSettings = strSettings & "&Archive"
    If (attr And vbHidden) = vbHidden Then strSettings = strSettings & "&Hidden"
    If (attr And vbReadOnly) = vbReadOnly Then strSettings = strSettings & "&ReadOnly"
    If (attr And vbSystem) = vbSystem Then strSettings = strSettings & "&System"

    GetAttributeSettings = Mid(strSettings, 2)
End Function

MsgBox GetAttributeSettings(22)

Result: “Directory&Hidden&System”

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