Attributes Property

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Description

Sets or returns the attributes of files or folders. Read/write or read-only, depending on the attribute.

Syntax

object.Attributes [= newattributes]

The Attributes property has these parts:

Part	Description
object	Required. Always the name of a File or Folder object.
newattributes	Optional. If provided, newattributes is the new value for the attributes of the specified object.

Settings

The newattributes argument can have any of the following values or any logical combination of the following values:

Constant	Value	Description
Normal	0	Normal file. No attributes are set.
ReadOnly	1	Read-only file. Attribute is read/write.
Hidden	2	Hidden file. Attribute is read/write.
System	4	System file. Attribute is read/write.
Directory	16	Folder or directory. Attribute is read-only.
Archive	32	File has changed since last backup. Attribute is read/write.
Alias	1024	Link or shortcut. Attribute is read-only.
Compressed	2048	Compressed file. Attribute is read-only.

Remarks

Attempts to change any of the read-only attributes (Alias, Compressed, or Directory) are ignored.

When setting attributes, it is generally a good idea to first read the current attributes, then change the individual attributes as desired, and finally write the attributes back.

The following code illustrates the use of the Attributes property with a file:

Function ToggleArchiveBit(filespec)
  Dim fso, f
  Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  Set f = fso.GetFile(filespec)
  If f.attributes and 32 Then
    f.attributes = f.attributes - 32
    ToggleArchiveBit = "Archive bit is cleared."
  Else
    f.attributes = f.attributes + 32
    ToggleArchiveBit = "Archive bit is set."
  End If
End Function

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