Use text file to provide the default value for a field in Access form

Question

I have a pop-up window in Microsoft Access containing text box fields that are required to be filled out by the user, for example:

First Name:
Last Name:

Now I'm trying to create a button that when clicked would look into C:\mytextfile.txt and auto-populate those fields.

inside the text file it would look like this:

##$@#%#$543%#$%#$$#%LAST NAME:BOB#$#@$@#$@#$@#FIRST NAME:DERRICK$#%$#%$#%#$%$#%$#

So essentially I'm looking for 3 things:

1. to access the text file
2. to parse for the data
3. to populate it into the text boxes. (The data doesn't need to go into a table until the "SAVE" button is clicked")

Update: This is what I've written so far, I'm not sure why it's not working.

Private Sub LoadText_Click()

    Dim myFile As String myFile = "C:\myFile.txt"
    Me.NameofTextbox = Mid(myFile, 7, 3)

End Sub

Answer 1

Here example for file you provided and controls on Form that are named txtboxLastName and txtboxFirstName

Dim mFields() As String ' array with fields' names in file
Dim mControls() As String ' corresponding controls' names
Dim mStopChars() As String ' Characters that put after values

Dim tmpstr As String
Dim content As String

Dim i As Long
Dim fStart  As Long
Dim valStart As Long
Dim valEnd As Long
Dim FieldValue As String
Dim j As Long
Dim tmp As Long

' prepare maps

' here : included in field name for common case
mFields = Split("LAST NAME:,FIRST NAME:", ",") 
mControls = Split("txtboxLastName,txtboxFirstName", ",")
mStopChars = Split("#,$,@,%", ",")

' read file into string
Open "c:\mytextfile.txt" For Input As #1

Do While Not EOF(1)
    Input #1, tmpstr
    content = content & tmpstr
Loop

Close #1

' cycle through fields and put their values into controls
For i = LBound(mFields) To UBound(mFields)
    fStart = InStr(1, content, mFields(i))
    If fStart > 0 Then
        valStart = fStart + Len(mFields(i))  'value start at this pos
        'cycle through possible stop chars to locate end of current value
        valEnd = Len(content)
        For j = LBound(mStopChars) To UBound(mStopChars)
            tmp = InStr(valStart, content, mStopChars(j))
            If tmp > 0 Then
                If tmp <= valEnd Then
                    valEnd = tmp - 1
                End If
            End If
        Next j
        ' cut value
        FieldValue = Mid(content, valStart, valEnd - valStart + 1)
        ' assign to control
        Me.Controls(mControls(i)).Value = FieldValue
    End If
Next i