finding latest file in a folder and opening it (vba access)

Question

I'm trying to open the latest file in a folder via button macro in access with the following code.

Tested using the if statement and I didn't see any problems. But once I used do while, i receive an error message of run time 6, overflow.

does len(dir()) not work with loops?

Below is my code.

Private Sub Command4_Click()
Dim ~~~~ As Object
Set ~~~~ = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Dim path As String
Dim name As String
Dim count As Long
Dim number As Long


path = "C:\Users\~~~~~\Desktop\~~~~~~~~~~~~\"
number = Len(Dir(path & "~~~~~~~ - " & Format(Now() - count, "MMMM dd, yyyy") & ".xlsm"))

Do While number = 0
count = count + 1
Loop

~~~~~.workbooks.Open path & "~~~~~~~ - " & Format(Now() - count, "MMMM dd, yyyy") & ".xlsm"


End Sub

the ~ lines are just placeholders due to confidentiality.

Thank you very much.

Answer 1

You simply go in stack overflow because your loop does not have an end point. It will continue running as long as number = 0 and since in the loop the variable number always equals 0 then the loop never stops. You should either put some bound to your while loop so that it reaches some end point when it breaks or not use it at all. What you are trying to achieve is probably the following

Function NewestFile()

Dim FileName As String
Dim MostRecentFile As String
Dim MostRecentDate As Date
Dim FileSpec As String

'Specify the file type, if any
 FileSpec = "*.*" 
'specify the directory
 Directory = "C:"
FileName = Dir(Directory & FileSpec)

If FileName <> "" Then
    MostRecentFile = FileName
    MostRecentDate = FileDateTime(Directory & FileName)
    Do While FileName <> ""
        If FileDateTime(Directory & FileName) > MostRecentDate Then
             MostRecentFile = FileName
             MostRecentDate = FileDateTime(Directory & FileName)
        End If
        FileName = Dir
    Loop
End If

NewestFile = MostRecentFile

End Function

This loop will stop when it loops through all files.