hi,
I am trying to create a temporary file and does anyone
know if there is any way to create a unique temporary filename?
Thanks
-Paul

Maybe not the best idea, but it's an idea, I guess.  Any other
opinions?

Seeya,
JC

Have someone seen it in some VBX or DLL?

Stig

Jens
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I just cut-and-pasted.

Jens Balchen jr.       http://www.sn.no/~balchen

'create a string of Nulls

    TempFileName$ = String$(255, 0)

' Get a temp file name to expand into...

    a = GetTempFileName(0, "fax" + Chr$(0), 0, TempFileName$)

Where I used "fax" you can use your own string.

HTH

Jeff

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There is also a DOS interrupt that will generate a unique file name.

-chris

Trouble was, it also CREATED the file in the Windows temp directory.
Unfortunately, I wanted to create said file in a specific directory.

I could not find a way to get around this problem. Any offers?

PS: You could always temporarily change the temp directory to your
directory, but if other programs are runnning ... yuk.

 - 'Spock, what is it?'
   'Very bad poetry, Captain' - Catspaw.

1. Kill the temp file in the \temp dir.
2. Create the file in whatever dir you want.

Jens
--
Everything I said are the opinions of someone else.
I just cut-and-pasted.

Jens Balchen jr.       http://www.sn.no/~balchen

My point is not 'Oh no, I've created a temporary file in the wrong
directory, now whatever can I do?'.

My point is, it would be a jolly useful little API call in it's own
right even if it only returned a name for a file that is unique, and
nothing else. If it goes and creates a zero-length file, why not call
it GetTempFile?

If it assumes you're going to use that file there and then, why not
just return a file handle?

Ciao.

 - 'Spock, what is it?'
   'Very bad poetry, Captain' - Catspaw.

Then, write a small routine to triple check that *that* file doesn't exist in
your own directory. If it does, re-call GetTempFileName.  If it doesn't,
you're in bid'ness.

Or, since it is your util and your directory, do whatever you want, and keep a
unified naming strategy.  

Name all your temp files, ~0000000x.tmp and everytime you write a tempfile,
increment x by 1.  Then when your app is done, do a Kill c:\YourApp\~*.tmp and
be done with it.

Should your app have crashed and you have left over files, the next time
your app initilizes, check and see what # x was up to and start from there...

Just thinking aloud, haven't tried any of it...

Jeff

This is a signature. Its purpose is to tell you who I am and how you can
get in touch with me. By being here, its duty is accomplished. It tells

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+------------------------------------------------------------+


|Physically in Church Hill, TN - Logically Not Sure          |
+------------------------------------------------------------+

Jens
--
Everything I said are the opinions of someone else.
I just cut-and-pasted.

Jens Balchen jr.       http://www.sn.no/~balchen

'Politically correct file operations

Deleting, copying, renaming, and moving files should be simple, right?
Basic provides the Kill, FileCopy, and Name statements for the first
three operations, and it's easy to write a FileMove using the other
three. In fact, you don't even need to do that in 32 bit mode because,
contrary to documentation, the Name statement can move files across
disks.'

Page 562, {*filter*} VISUAL BASIC by Bruce McKinney.
Microsoft Press, ISBN 1-55615-667-7

As I said - haven't tried it myself, but I'm reliably informed it
ought to work. ;-)

I might give it a go tonight, actually. See if the book is right.
Being an MS book, one would hope so, right?

Trouble with Kill and FileCopy, is that Windows only checks it is
unique by checking the Temp directory. As another poster points out,
for complete safety once you had the filename you would have to verify
that the temp file didn't exist in the directory you wanted to place
the temp file. If it did, you would have to either delete it (which
depending on the app you might not want to do), or you have to call
GetTempFilename again. I sense an unnecessary iterative process
here...

The best solution is to implement a unique filename generator
yourself.

But wouldn't it have been nice if that was what GetTempFileName
actually did?

 - 'Spock, what is it?'
   'Very bad poetry, Captain' - Catspaw.

Jens
Jens
--
Everything I said are the opinions of someone else.
I just cut-and-pasted.

Jens Balchen jr.       http://www.sn.no/~balchen

Declare Function GetTempFileName Lib "Kernel" (ByVal cDriveLetter as Integer, ByVal lpPrefixString As String, ByVal wUnique As Integer, ByVal lpTempFileName As String) As Integer

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