Just discovered that you can't rely on the old Dir function to check if a
file exists or not and I thought it might be worth it to post this to this
forum.

I always used a function like this to test if a file exists:

Function bFileExists3(ByVal sFile As String) As Boolean

 bFileExists3 = Len(Dir(sFile)) > 0

End Function

This is just no good, try:

MsgBox bFileExists3(""), , Dir("")

I get True as Dir("") gives me: 256 colours.htm

When I make the function like this:

Function bFileExists3(ByVal sFile As String) As Boolean

 bFileExists3 = Len(Dir(sFile)) > 0 And Len(sFile) > 0

End Function

It will work in VBA, but not when I make an ActiveX dll in VB6.
Strangely, the len function doesn't give zero.
I have no public or private variables that could mess the function up.

I have found 2 alternatives to check if a file exists or not, the first one
is from
Randy Birch's site. Both seem to work fine.

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function PathFileExists Lib "shlwapi" _
                                       Alias "PathFileExistsA" _
                                       (ByVal pszPath As String) As Long

Function bFileExists(ByVal sPath As String) As Boolean

 'Determines if a file exists. This function
 'tests the validity of the file and path. It
 'works only on the local file system or on a
 'remote drive that has been mounted to a drive
 'letter.
 '
 'It will return False for remote file paths
 'that begin with the UNC names \\server
 'or \\server\share. It will also return False
 'if a mounted remote drive is out of service.
 '
 'Requires Version 4.71 and later of Shlwapi.dll

 bFileExists = PathFileExists(sPath) = 1

End Function

Function bFileExists2(ByVal sFile As String) As Boolean

 Dim lAttr As Long

 On Error Resume Next
 lAttr = GetAttr(sFile)
 bFileExists2 = (Err.Number = 0) And ((lAttr And vbDirectory) = 0)
 On Error GoTo 0

End Function

Will stick with the API one for now.

RBS