Article ID: 213541 - Last Review: October 11, 2006 - Revision: 4.3

XL2000: Input # Statement Does Not Retain Trailing Spaces

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SYMPTOMS

When you use the Input # statement in a Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications macro to read data in a file, trailing spaces in unquoted data are ignored. For example, when you assign a field to the variable in the Input # statement, the field does not contain trailing spaces even if trailing spaces exist in the source file. This behavior differs from behavior in versions of Microsoft Excel earlier than Excel 97.
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CAUSE

The behavior of the Input # statement in Microsoft Excel has been changed to more closely match the behavior of the Input # statement that is used in Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0 and later. This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel.
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WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific requirements.
To work around this behavior, place quotation marks around any input strings that have trailing spaces. For example, if a source file contains the following data: 
   Fred     ,Albert
   Barney   ,Jefferson

change the source file to the following: 
   "Fred     ",Albert
   "Barney   ",Jefferson

When you run the following macro on the file that contains fields that are enclosed in quotation marks, the trailing spaces are retained: 
   Sub ReadFile()

       'If needed, include path to file such as "C:\test.txt"
       Open "test.txt" For Input As #1     ' Open file for input.
       Do While Not EOF(1)                 ' Loop until end of file.
           Input #1, str1, str2            ' Read data into variables.
           Debug.Print "[" & str1 & "]"    ' Print variables in Debug
                                           ' window.
           Debug.Print "[" & str2 & "]"
       Loop
       Close #1                            ' Close the file.

   End Sub

The results in the Debug window are the following: 
   [Fred     ]
   [Albert]
   [Barney   ]
   [Jefferson]

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APPLIES TO
  • Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
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Keywords: 
kbdtacode kbprb kbprogramming KB213541
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