Command Function

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Named Arguments

No

Syntax

Command

Description

Returns the arguments used when launching VB or an application created with VB.

Rules at a Glance

• For applications created with VB and compiled into an EXE, Command returns a string containing everything entered after the name of the executable file.

• This function isn't implemented in hosted versions of VBA. Regardless of any command line that may be passed to the host application, Command returns a null string.

Example

The following example demonstrates how to parse command-line arguments to set up a series of options in your executable. This example (which is bereft of all error handling) looks for a hyphen or a forward slash in the command line arguments and assumes that the following character is a command line switch. Given the command-line arguments:

-d:50 -f -g -k

the program displays the following in the Immediate window:

Got option d
Option d Parameter = 50
Got option f
Got option g
Got option k

The source code is as follows:

Private Sub ParseCommandLine()

Dim i As Integer
Dim s As String
Dim iParam As Integer
    
For i = 1 To Len(Command)
   If Mid$(Command, i, 1) Like "[-/]" Then
      s = Mid$(Command, i + 1, 1)
      Select Case s
         Case Is = "d"
            Debug.Print "Got option d"
            iParam = Int(Mid$(Command, i + 3, 2))
            Debug.Print "Option d Parameter = " & _
                         CStr(iParam)
         Case Is = "f"
            Debug.Print "Got option f"
         Case Is = "g"
            Debug.Print "Got option g"
         Case Is = "k"
            Debug.Print "Got option k"
         Case Is = "l"
            Debug.Print "Got option l"
      End Select
   End If
Next i

End Sub

Programming Tips and Gotchas

• During the development phase, you can pass arguments to your program using the Command Line Arguments text box, which can be found by selecting Properties from the Project menu and clicking the Make tab of the Project Properties dialog.

• To handle command-line arguments, you have to write a routine similar to that shown above to parse the string returned by Command, since the function returns only a single string containing all input after the name of the executable file.

• Command-line arguments are ideal for specifying various options on unattended applications.