How to Check if a File does NOT exist and display one overall response using a For Loop - vbscript

Question

I'm trying to write a VBScript that will check whether a file exists in a folder or not based on a partial number. If anything in the folder has this number in the string it can continue, if not an error needs to display saying it's not in the system. I've gotten a code that lets me know that the file DOES exist, but I can't get a NOT version to work. Any ideas?
Dim FSO, str1, fileName
str1 = "001234"
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFolder = FSO.GetFolder("C:\Users\GDoe\Desktop\FolderA\")
For Each objFile In objFolder.Files
fileName = objFile.Name
If InStr(fileName, str1) Then
MsgBox("Proceed")
Exit For
End If
Next

Answer 1

Unfortunately the FileSystemObject's FileExists method does not support wildcards, so the straightforward approach is not possible here.
The code you posted in your question is basically how one would check for the existence of a file with a partial name with VBScript and the FileSystemObject. You can modify that code into a check for the absence of a file with some minor changes. Define a variable before the loop and set it to False, then instead of displaying a message box set that vriable to True when you find a matching file:
fileFound = False
For Each objFile In objFolder.Files
fileName = objFile.Name
If InStr(fileName, str1) Then
fileFound = True
Exit For
End If
Next
If fileFound Then
MsgBox("Proceed")
Else
MsgBox("File doesn't exist.")
End If
Alternatively, you could shell out and check the exit code of the dir command:
Function FileExists(path, namepart)
Set sh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
rc = sh.Run("cmd /c dir ""*" & path & "\" & namepart & "*""", 0, True)
FileExists = Not CBool(rc)
End Function
dir returns 0 if it finds matching file(s) and 1 if it doesn't. CBool() converts the integer return code into a boolean value (0 → False, 1 → True). The negation then corrects the logic from "false if found" to "true if found".
Of course you could also name the function FileMissing and remove the negation, so that the function returns True if no matching file is found. That's just a matter of what logic works best in your code.
Note that you need to run the command with cmd /c, because dir is a cmd.exe builtin command, not an executable.

Answer 2

I actually just found a way to answer my own question but if there's a better way I'd also love to know.
Dim FSO, str1, fileName
str1 = "-001239"
Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set objFolder = FSO.GetFolder("C:\Users\GDoe\Desktop\FolderA\")
For Each objFile In objFolder.Files
fileName=objFile.Name
If InStr(fileName, str1) Then
MsgBox("Proceed")
Exit For
End If
Next
If InStr(fileName, str1) = 0 Then
MsgBox("File doesn't Exist")
End If
I took the rule that if string2 is not found in an InStr command it returns 0. Setting the result = 0 shows if I don't have the file.