Read configuration information from file into VBS array

Question

I've written a vbs script to try delete all files over a certain age from pre-defined subfolders within a directory.

These subfolders are defined in a configuration file:

[folders]
des
dcs

I'm trying to load this data into a VBS script during runtime. The config file will be located in the same folder as the VBS script, in a subfolder called Config.

I basically want the values under [folder] stored in an array. Below is an example where I've hardcoded this using the variable codes.

Can someone please assist?

Set oFileSys = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
sRoot = "C:\project\Target"
today = Date
nMaxFileAge = 3

codes = Array("des", "dcs") 'hardcoded for now

For Each code in codes
    textFilePath = oFileSys.BuildPath(sRoot, code)
    remove_files(textFilePath)
Next

Function remove_files(path)
  Set oFolder = oFileSys.GetFolder(path)
  Set aFiles = oFolder.Files
  Set aSubFolders = oFolder.SubFolders

  For Each file in aFiles
      dFileCreated = FormatDateTime(file.DateCreated, "2")
      if DateDiff("d", dFileCreated, today) > nMaxFileAge Then
          file.Delete(True)
      End If
  Next

  For Each folder in aSubFolders
      remove_files(folder.Path)
  Next
End Function

Edit: It doesn't really matter what type of file the configuration file is. Just somewhere I can define a list of folder and read it into VBS.

The answer someone else has linked to before closing my question doesn't answer the question. See my solution below.

Does this answer your question? [read text file and make it in array - vbscript](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44581406/read-text-file-and-make-it-in-array-vbscript) — LesFerch, Jul 07 '22 at 12:23
Thanks. I'll take a look. I did find another solution just using a text file. — TheDataPanda, Jul 07 '22 at 12:37
The key takeaways are to use `ReadAll` to load the file contents into a string variable and then use `Split` to convert the string into an array. In your case, split on `VBCRLF`. — LesFerch, Jul 07 '22 at 13:15
Thank you all. This was helpful. I've posted my final solution below. Only thing I'm worried about is if the text file is empty, I think `textFilePath` will compute to just the root directory (e.g. `"C:\project\Target"`). I just need to find a way to add some error handling to make sure this doesn't happen — TheDataPanda, Jul 07 '22 at 13:23
You don't have to hard-code the path. You can use a relative path since the data file will be in the same folder as the script. See [this answer](https://stackoverflow.com/a/70043076/15764378) — LesFerch, Jul 07 '22 at 14:04

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 07 '22 at 12:37

I managed to find some code elsewhere to help. Basically I just stored in the folder names in a text file, and read those in:

Const ForReading = 1
Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objOpen = objFSO.OpenTextFile("C:\project\Target\test.txt", ForReading)
Dim code()

sRoot = "C:\project\Target"
today = Date
nMaxFileAge = 3

FileContent = objOpen.ReadAll
msgbox FileContent
codes = Split(FileContent, VbCrLF)
objOpen.Close

Set objOpen = Nothing

For Each code in codes
    textFilePath = objFSO.BuildPath(sRoot, code)
    msgbox textFilePath
    remove_files(textFilePath)
Next

Function remove_files(path)
  Set oFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(path)
  Set aFiles = oFolder.Files
  Set aSubFolders = oFolder.SubFolders

  For Each file in aFiles
      dFileCreated = FormatDateTime(file.DateCreated, "2")
      if DateDiff("d", dFileCreated, today) > nMaxFileAge Then
          file.Delete(True)
      End If
  Next

  For Each folder in aSubFolders
      remove_files(folder.Path)
  Next
End Function

Read configuration information from file into VBS array

1 Answers1