Saving Data in binary format

In VBA, you can save/read data as/from binary file. This is particularly useful when you want to backup any intermedia data generated during your procedure runtime, or if you need to save configuration outside the excel workbook but you want to take care of reading the configuration files.

Function savedata(ByVal filefullName As String, ByRef data As Variant)

Open filefullName For Binary Lock Read Write As #1
  Put #1, , data
Close #1

End Function

Function saveconfig(ByVal filefullName As String, ByRef data As my_config) 

Open filefullName For Binary Lock Read Write As #1
  Put #1, , data
Close #1 

End Function
Function getdata(ByVal filefullName As String, ByRef data As Variant)

Open filefullName For Binary Lock Read As #1
  Get #1, , data
Close #1

End Function

Function getconfig(ByVal filefullName As String, ByRef data As my_config) 

Open filefullName For Binary Lock Read As 1
  Get #1, , data
Close #1 

End Function

The above four function will save and load data for you(savedata() and getdata() are for Variant type data, saveconfig() and getconfig() are for User_Defined_Type), let’s see how we can use them:

Copy the above two function together with the following code into your VBA module:

Type my_config
db_path As String
password As String
back_up_path As String
some_other_config As Integer
End Type

Sub test_save_and_load()
Dim str_var As String: str_var = "Hello!"
Dim int_var As Integer: int_var = 169
Dim bol_var As Boolean: bol_var = True
Dim arr_var As Variant
Dim test As Variant
Dim config As my_config
Dim new_config As my_config
Dim cell As Object
Dim i As Integer

'create a large array
i = 0
For Each cell In ThisWorkbook.Sheets(1).Range("A1:H50").Cells
cell = i
i = i + 1
Next

arr_var = ThisWorkbook.Sheets(1).Range("A1:H50")
Debug.Print arr_var(1, 7)
config.back_up_path = "D:\Backup"
config.db_path = "D:\DB"
config.password = "a12356"
config.some_other_config = "7"

'save data to binaryfile
savedata "C:\TEMP\str.anyextension", str_var
savedata "C:\TEMP\int.anyextension", int_var
savedata "C:\TEMP\bol.anyextension", bol_var
savedata "C:\TEMP\arr.anyextension", arr_var
saveconfig "C:\TEMP\config.anyextension", config

'get data from binaryfile
getdata "C:\TEMP\str.anyextension", test
Debug.Print test
getdata "C:\TEMP\int.anyextension", test
Debug.Print test
getdata "C:\TEMP\bol.anyextension", test
Debug.Print test
getdata "C:\TEMP\arr.anyextension", test
Debug.Print test(1, 7)
getconfig "C:\TEMP\config.anyextension", new_config
Debug.Print new_config.password

End Sub

Basically, the above procedure is trying to save data(string, integer, boolean, array) and a user_defined_type into binary.