Excel VBA - PDF file properties

Question

first-time poster but long-time fan for finding VBA and SQL solutions on this site. I have a VBA subroutine that is designed to find all PDF files within a directory that the user designates. The program does recursions through all subfolders and generates a spreadsheet as follows:

Column A: complete file path ("C:\Users\Records\NumberOne.pdf")

Column B: folder path containing the file ("C:\Users\Records\")

Column C: the file name itself ("NumberOne.pdf")

Up to this point, the program (code below) works flawlessly. I've used it to search a directory with over 50,000 PDF files, and it successfully generates the spreadsheet every time (total elapsed time for the program is usually 5-10 minutes in large directories).

The problem is that I want to add Column D to capture the date that the PDF file was created. I have Googled this and labored over it for hours, trying techniques like FSO.DateCreated and so forth, and nothing has worked. If FSO.DateCreated is what I need, I'm not sure where to insert it in my subroutine to make it work. Usually I get an error that the object does not support that property or method. Does anybody happen to know where I can insert the proper code for my program to find the date each PDF was created and drop it into Column D on my output spreadsheet?

Sub GetFiles()
'-- RUNS AN UNLIMITED RECURSION SEARCH THROUGH A TARGETED FOLDER AND FINDS ALL PDF FILES WITHIN

        Application.ScreenUpdating = False
        Application.DisplayAlerts = False

        Dim j As Long
        Dim ThisEntry As String
        Dim strDir As String
        Dim FSO As Object
        Dim strFolder As String
        Dim strName As String
        Dim DateCreated As Date '--(Possibly String?)
        Dim strArr(1 To 1048576, 1 To 1) As String, i As Long
        Dim fldr As FileDialog

        '-- OPEN DIALOG BOX TO SELECT DIRECTORY THE USER WISHES TO SEARCH
        Set fldr = Application.FileDialog(msoFileDialogFolderPicker)
        With fldr
            .Title = "Select the directory you wish to search"
            .AllowMultiSelect = False
            If .Show <> -1 Then
                Exit Sub
                Set fldr = Nothing
            Else
                strDir = .SelectedItems(1) & "\"
            End If
        End With

        '-- LOOK FOR RECORDS WORKSHEET; IF IT DOES NOT EXIST, CREATE IT; IF IT DOES EXIST, CLEAR CONTENTS
        If Not (wsExists("records")) Then
                Worksheets.Add
            With ActiveSheet
                .Name = "records"
            End With
            Set ws = ActiveSheet
        Else
            Sheets("records").Activate
            Range("A1:IV1").EntireColumn.Delete
            Set ws = ActiveSheet
        End If

        '-- SET SEARCH PARAMETERS
        Let strName = Dir$(strDir & "\" & "*.pdf")
        Do While strName <> vbNullString
            Let i = i + 1
            Let strArr(i, 1) = strDir & strName
            Let strName = Dir$()
        Loop

        '-- UNLIMITED RECURSIONS THROUGH SUBFOLDERS
        Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
        Call recurseSubFolders(FSO.GetFolder(strDir), strArr(), i)
        Set FSO = Nothing

        '-- CREATE COLUMN HEADERS ON OUTPUT WORKSHEET
        With ws
            Range("A1").Value = "AbsolutePath"
            Range("B1").Value = "FolderPath"
            Range("C1").Value = "FileName"
            Range("D1").Value = "DateCreated"
        End With

        If i > 0 Then
            ws.Range("A2").Resize(i).Value = strArr
        End If

        lr = Cells(Rows.Count, 1).End(xlUp).Row

        For i = 1 To lr
        ThisEntry = Cells(i, 1)

        '-- EXTRACT FOLDER PATH AND FILE NAME FROM STRING
        For j = Len(ThisEntry) To 1 Step -1
            If Mid(ThisEntry, j, 1) = Application.PathSeparator Then
            Cells(i, 2) = Left(ThisEntry, j)
            Cells(i, 3) = Mid(ThisEntry, j + 1)
        Exit For

        End If
        Next j
        Next i

        Application.ScreenUpdating = True
        Application.DisplayAlerts = True

End Sub

----------

Private Sub recurseSubFolders(ByRef Folder As Object, _
ByRef strArr() As String, _
ByRef i As Long)
Dim SubFolder As Object
Dim strName As String

        For Each SubFolder In Folder.SubFolders
        Let strName = Dir$(SubFolder.Path & "\" & "*.pdf")
        Do While strName <> vbNullString
        Let i = i + 1
        Let strArr(i, 1) = SubFolder.Path & "\" & strName
        Let strName = Dir$()
        Loop
        Call recurseSubFolders(SubFolder, strArr(), i)
        Next

End Sub

Answer 1

Your code is fine (beside some issues with indentation). I just added the instruction to get the creation date from the file system, as you can see below:

Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
For i = 1 To lr
    ThisEntry = Cells(i, 1)

'-- EXTRACT FOLDER PATH AND FILE NAME FROM STRING
    For j = Len(ThisEntry) To 1 Step -1
        If Mid(ThisEntry, j, 1) = Application.PathSeparator Then
            Cells(i, 2) = Left(ThisEntry, j)
            Cells(i, 3) = Mid(ThisEntry, j + 1)
            Cells(i, 4) = FSO.GetFile(ThisEntry).DateCreated
            Exit For

        End If
    Next j
Next i

I don't know why you weren't able to use the FSO object, but I believe it can be because few lines below you set it to nothing, so I instantiated it again before the first For cycle:

Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

Hope this helps, The Macro Guru

Answer 2

You need to get the file with GetFile before you can access the DateCreated.

Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set f = fs.GetFile(myFileName)
str = f.DateCreated
MsgBox (str)

Answer 3

FileSystem.FileDateTime(inputfilepath) returns a variant or date of when the file was last created or modified.