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: Appending to a Non-Excel Text File.

Appending to a Non-Excel Text File

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 10, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


When using a macro to write information to a text file, you may want to add information to an existing file, rather than creating a new text file from scratch. To do this, all you need to do is open the file for Append rather than Output. The following code shows this process:

Open "MyFile.Dat" For Append As #1
For J = 1 to NewValues
    Print #1, UserVals(OrigVals + J)
Next J
Close #1

When the file is opened for Append mode, any new information is added to the end of the file, without disturbing the existing contents.

Understand that the information in this tip shows how to add data to a text file; it doesn't indicate where that data should come from. In other words, if you want the data to come from information stored in variables in your macro, you'll need to determine which variable contents to write to the file. (The example code actually uses variables—the UserVals array—for writing information to the text file.) If, however, you want the information to be pulled from a worksheet, then you'll need to create the code that grabs the information from the desired cells and, in turn, writes it out to the text file. (This tip is not about grabbing the data, but about writing it to the file.)

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 (2536) 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: Appending to a Non-Excel Text File.

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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