how to run an external program and put its output in access (1 Viewer)

[tuxA]

Hello!
I'm new to VBA, and I don't know at all, how to get the output of a program back...

a bit more detailed:
I've got a command line tool, that scans several files on disk and writes some info on the console.
I've tried the "Shell" function, but it returns only the program's PID.
But I need is its complete output to write it back into the database...

Alex

 

[tembenite]

You can likely trigger the program from access. As long as its a DOS prompt base program, you can put "YOURPROGRAM > textfile.txt" to capture the screen contents into a textfile. Then you could import that textfile into access.

 

[modest]

Just so you're clear, use tembenite's suggestion in your Shell call

Shell "blah.exe > C:\path\filename.txt"

Or you could create a bat file and call that.