Input Function

This page is specific to the Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Language Reference for Office 2010.

Returns String containing characters from a file opened in Input or Binary mode.

Syntax

Input(number, [#]filenumber)

The Input function syntax has these parts:

Part	Description
number	Required. Any valid numeric expression specifying the number of characters to return.
filenumber	Required. Any valid file number.

Remarks

Data read with the Input function is usually written to a file with Print # or Put. Use this function only with files opened in Input or Binary mode.

Unlike the Input # statement, the Input function returns all of the characters it reads, including commas, carriage returns, linefeeds, quotation marks, and leading spaces.

With files opened for Binary access, an attempt to read through the file using the Input function until EOF returns True generates an error. Use the LOF and Loc functions instead of EOF when reading binary files with Input, or use Get when using the EOF function.

Note

Use the InputB function for byte data contained within text files. With InputB, number specifies the number of bytes to return rather than the number of characters to return.

Example

This example uses the Input function to read one character at a time from a file and print it to the Immediate window. This example assumes that TESTFILE is a text file with a few lines of sample data.

Dim MyChar
Open "TESTFILE" For Input As #1    ' Open file.
Do While Not EOF(1)    ' Loop until end of file.
    MyChar = Input(1, #1)    ' Get one character.
    Debug.Print MyChar    ' Print to the Immediate window.
Loop
Close #1    ' Close file.