Expert: Stuart Resnick - 10/19/2006

Question
Hello,
Using VBA (Windows XP and Excel 2003) is it possible to retreive the value of the "Date Picture Taken" attribute of a picture file.

Thank you

Answer
If, for instance, you have on your drive a picture in .jpg format, you can use vba to retreive the date that .jpg file was created. This can also be done with any other type of file. Here's code that will prompt you to browse to a .jpg file, and will then put the date of that file in cell B2.

Before running the code, from within any module of the Visual Basic Editor, you should choose from the main menu Tools, References and make sure that "Microsoft Scripting Runtime" is checked.

Sub getFileDate()
 Dim filePath As String
 Dim fso As Scripting.FileSystemObject
 Dim file As Scripting.file
 filePath = Application.GetOpenFilename( _
   "Picture (*.jpg), *.jpg")
 Set fso = New FileSystemObject
 Set file = fso.GetFile(filePath)
 Range("b2") = file.DateCreated
End Sub