Read Local HTML File into String With VBA - html

Question

This feels like it should be simple. I have a .HTML file stored on my computer, and I'd like to read the entire file into a string. When I try the super straightforward
Dim FileAsString as string
Open "C:\Myfile.HTML" for input as #1
Input #1, FileAsString
Close #1
debug.print FileAsString
I don't get the whole file. I only get the first few lines (I know the immediate window cuts off, but that's not the issue. I'm definitely not getting the whole file into my string.) I also tried using an alternative method using the file system object, and got similar results, only this time with lots of weird characters and question marks thrown in. This makes me think it's probably some kind of encoding issue. (Although frankly, I don't fully understand what that means. I know there are different encoding formats and that this can cause issues with string parsing, but that's about it.)
So more generally, here's what I'd really like to know: How can I use vba to open a file of any extension (that can be viewed in a text editor) and length (that's doesn't exceed VBA's string limit), and be sure that whatever characters I would see in a basic text editor are what gets read into a string? (If that can't be (easily) done, I'd certainly appreciate being pointed towards a method that's likely to work with .html files) Thanks so much for your help
EDIT:
Here's an example of what happens when I use the suggested method. Specifically
Dim oFSO As Object
Dim oFS As Object, sText As String
Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oFS = oFSO.OpenTextFile(Path)
Do Until oFS.AtEndOfStream
sText = oFS.ReadAll()
Loop
FileToString = sText
Set oFSO = Nothing
Set oFS = Nothing
End Function
I'll show you both the beginning (via a message box) and the end (via the immediate window) because both are weird in different ways. In both cases I'll compare it to a screen capture of the html source displayed in chrome:
Beginning:
End:

Answer 1

This is one method
Option Explicit
Sub test()
Dim oFSO As Object
Dim oFS As Object, sText As String
Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oFS = oFSO.OpenTextFile("C:\Users\osknows\Desktop\import-store.csv")
Do Until oFS.AtEndOfStream
' sText = oFS.ReadLine 'read line by line
sText = oFS.ReadAll()
Debug.Print sText
Loop
End Sub
EDIT:
Try changing the following line to one of the following 3 lines and see if it makes any difference
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa265347(v=vs.60).aspx
Set FS = FSO.OpenTextFile("C:\Users\osknows\Desktop\import-store.csv", 1, 0)
Set FS = FSO.OpenTextFile("C:\Users\osknows\Desktop\import-store.csv", 1, 1)
Set FS = FSO.OpenTextFile("C:\Users\osknows\Desktop\import-store.csv", 1, 2)
EDIT2:
Does this code work for you?
Function ExecuteWebRequest(ByVal url As String) As String
Dim oXHTTP As Object
Set oXHTTP = CreateObject("MSXML2.XMLHTTP")
oXHTTP.Open "GET", url, False
oXHTTP.send
ExecuteWebRequest = oXHTTP.responseText
Set oXHTTP = Nothing
End Function
Function OutputText(ByVal outputstring As String)
MyFile = ThisWorkbook.Path & "\temp.html"
'set and open file for output
fnum = FreeFile()
Open MyFile For Output As fnum
'use Print when you want the string without quotation marks
Print #fnum, outputstring
Close #fnum
End Function
Sub test()
Dim oFSO As Object
Dim oFS As Object, sText As String
Dim Uri As String, HTML As String
Uri = "http://www.forrent.com/results.php?search_type=citystate&page_type_id=city&seed=859049165&main_field=12345&ssradius=-1&min_price=%240&max_price=No+Limit&sbeds=99&sbaths=99&search-submit=Submit"
HTML = ExecuteWebRequest(Uri)
OutputText (HTML)
Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oFS = oFSO.OpenTextFile(ThisWorkbook.Path & "\temp.html")
Do Until oFS.AtEndOfStream
' sText = oFS.ReadLine 'read line by line
sText = oFS.ReadAll()
Debug.Print sText
Loop
End Sub

Answer 2

Okay so I finally managed to figure this out. The VBA file system object can only read asciiII files, and I had saved mine as unicode. Sometimes, as in my case, saving an asciiII file can cause errors. You can get around this, however, by converting the file to binary, and then back to a string. The details are explained here http://bytes.com/topic/asp-classic/answers/521362-write-xmlhttp-result-text-file.

Answer 3

A bit late to answer but I did this exact thing today (works perfectly):
Sub modify_local_html_file()
Dim url As String
Dim html As Object
Dim fill_a As Object
url = "C:\Myfile.HTML"
Dim oFSO As Object
Dim oFS As Object, sText As String
Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set oFS = oFSO.OpenTextFile(url)
Do Until oFS.AtEndOfStream
sText = oFS.ReadAll()
Debug.Print sText
Loop
Set html = CreateObject("htmlfile")
html.body.innerHTML = sText
oFS.Close
Set oFS = Nothing
'# grab some element #'
Set fill_a = html.getElementById("val_a")
MsgBox fill_a.innerText
'# change its inner text #'
fill_a.innerText = "20%"
MsgBox fill_a.innerText
'# open file this time to write to #'
Set oFS = oFSO.OpenTextFile(url, 2)
'# write it modified html #'
oFS.write html.body.innerHTML
oFS.Close
Set oFSO = Nothing
Set oFS = Nothing
End Sub