Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Removing a Directory.

Removing a Directory

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 4, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


In other issues of ExcelTips you learn how to create a directory from within a macro. There are times that programmers (even macro programmers) create directories to store temporary files. When they are done, the files are deleted and the directory is removed. To remove a directory, you use the RmDir command in your macro, as shown here:

RmDir DirName

where DirName is the full pathname of the directory you want to delete. If you do not use a string variable to specify the directory name, then DirName must be enclosed in quotes. If there are any files in the directory or any subdirectories contained in the subdirectory, the command fails with an error. (This means you should delete all the files and subdirectories before trying to remove a directory with RmDir.)

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2441) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Removing a Directory.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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