VBA code to create, delete and manage folders

Creating, deleting and renaming folders is a common requirement when automating processes with VBA.  The code snippets below should be sufficient to complete the most common folder tasks.

All the code examples below use the built-in Dir() function and its derivatives.  The File System Object methods are not covered in this post but will be covered at a future point.

Check if a folder exists

Referencing a folder which does not exist will result in an error, therefore it is often necessary to check if a folder exists before carrying out any other actions.

'Check if a folder exists
Dim folderPath As String
folderPath = "C:\Users\marks\Documents\Folder"

If Dir(folderPath, vbDirectory) <> "" Then

    'Insert action for if the folder exists
    'This example prints to the immediate window
    Debug.Print folderPath & " exists."

Else

    'Insert actions if the folder does not exist
    'This example prints to the immediate window
    Debug.Print folderPath & " does not exist."

End If

vbDirectory is the attribute of a folder.  The code above can be adapted to check for other types of files too.

VBA Name of attribute	Enumerator	Description
vbNormal	0	Files with no attributes (default setting)
vbReadOnly	1	Read-only files
vbHidden	2	Hidden files
vbSystem	4	System files
vbVolume	8	Volume label
vbDirectory	16	Directories

For checking folder existence within another procedure, it is often easier to have a reusable function, which can be called upon when required.

'Reusable function to check if a folder exists
Function doesFolderExist(folderPath) As Boolean

DoesFolderExist = Dir(folderPath, vbDirectory) <> ""

End Function

The following VBA code calls the doesFolderExist function from above and prints True (the folder exists) or False (the folder does not exist) to the Immediate window.

'Call the reusable function to check for folder existence
Debug.Print doesFolderExist("C:\Users\marks\Documents\Folder")

The following VBA code calls the doesFolderExist function from above for use within an If statement.

'Check if a folder exists calling the doesFolderExist function
Dim folderPath As String
folderPath = "C:\Users\marks\Documents\Folder"

If doesFolderExist(folderPath) = True Then

    'Insert action for if the folder exists
    'This example prints to the immediate window
    Debug.Print folderPath & " exists."

Else

    'Insert actions if the folder does not exist
    'This example prints to the immediate window
    Debug.Print folderPath & " does not exist."

End If

Create a new folder

The VBA code below will create a new folder.  If the folder already exists, it will not overwrite it, but it will display an error.  The function will only create the last folder in the file path, all the parent folders must already exist.

'Create a new folder
MkDir "C:\Users\marks\Documents\New folder"

The avoid an error, the code below will check if a folder exists before trying to create it.

'Create a folder if it does not already exist, if it does, do nothing 
Dim folderPath As String
folderPath = "C:\Users\marks\Documents\New Folder"

'Check if the folder exists
If Dir(folderPath, vbDirectory) = "" Then

    'Folder does not exist, so create it
    MkDir folderPath

End If

As the Dir() function will only create a single folder, the code below loops through the individual folder names in the path and calls the Dir() function to create any missing folders and subfolders.

'Create all the folders in a folder path
Dim folderPath As String
Dim individualFolders() As String
Dim tempFolderPath As String
Dim arrayElement As Variant

'The desired folder path
folderPath = "C:\Users\marks\Documents\New Folder\New Folder\New Folder\New Folder"

'Split the folder path into individual folder names
individualFolders = Split(folderPath, "\")

'Loop though each individual folder name
For Each arrayElement In individualFolders

'Build string of folder path
    tempFolderPath = tempFolderPath & arrayElement & "\"
 
    'If folder does not exist, then create it
    If Dir(tempFolderPath, vbDirectory) = "" Then
 
        MkDir tempFolderPath
 
     End If
 
Next arrayElement

Delete a folder

The RmDir function will delete a folder.  However, it is limited as it will only delete an empty folder.  All the files within the folder will need to be deleted first.  Using the File System Object method (which is not covered in this post) it is possible to delete folders and their contents.

'Delete a folder
Dim folderPath As String
folderPath = "C:\Users\marks\Documents\Delete Folder"

'Ensure the folder path as a "\" at the end of the string
'Required for deleting the files using wildcards
If Right(folderPath, 1) <> "\" Then folderPath = folderPath & "\"

'Use wildcards to delete all the files in the folder
Kill folderPath & "*.*"

'Delete the now empty folder
RmDir folderPath

If the folder does not exist the RmDir function will display an error.  Refer to the first section of this post to check for existence

Rename a folder

The VBA code below will re-name a folder, and even move the contents of the entire folder to another location.

'Rename a folder
Name "C:\Users\marks\Documents\Folder" As "C:\Users\marks\Documents\Renamed Folder"

To use this example code, it may be necessary to check if the old folder name exists and the new folder name does not exist.

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