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MS Excel 2003: Check to see if a file exists based on a value in column A

This Excel tutorial explains how to write a macro to check to see if a file exists based on a value in Excel 2003 and older versions (with screenshots and step-by-step instructions).

Question: In Microsoft Excel 2003/XP/2000/97, I have a list of part numbers in an Excel chart. I want to compare those part numbers to a directory of CAD files to see if a Drawing exists for each part number.

So if the part number from column A exists in this directory, then put a "YES" in column "B". If it does not exist, put a "NO" in column B?

Answer:Let's look at an example.

Download Excel spreadsheet (as demonstrated below)

In our spreadsheet, we have our part numbers listed in column A and we want to find out if the file exists for each of these part numbers. All of the files will be located in the R:\Symbols directory and will have a .sym file extension.

So in the case of part number 12-400047-001 we want to look for the following file:

R:\Symbols\12-400047-001.sym

You can run the macro by select Macro > Macros under the Tools menu.

Then select the macro called CheckIfFileExists and click on the Run button.

After you run the macro, the values in column B should indicate whether the files exist or not.

You can press Alt+F11 to view the VBA code.

Macro Code

The macro code looks like this:

Sub CheckIfFileExists()

   Dim LRow As Integer
   Dim LPath As String
   Dim LExtension As String
   Dim LContinue As Boolean

   'Initialize variables
   LContinue = True
   LRow = 2
   LPath = "R:\Symbols\"
   LExtension = ".sym"

   'Loop through all column A values until a blank cell is found
   While LContinue

      'Found a blank cell, do not continue
      If Len(Range("A" & CStr(LRow)).Value) = 0 Then
         LContinue = False

      'Check if file exists for part number
      Else
         'Place "No" in column B if the file does NOT exist
         If Len(Dir(LPath & Range("A" & CStr(LRow)).Value & LExtension)) = 0 Then
            Range("B" & CStr(LRow)).Value = "No"
            'Place "Yes" in column B if the file does exist
         Else
            Range("B" & CStr(LRow)).Value = "Yes"
         End If
      End If

      LRow = LRow + 1

   Wend

End Sub