Extract the path from a full file-name in VBA

If you want to remove just the last item from your path, you can do it this way:

Left(nPath, InStrRev(nPath, "\") - 1)

• InStrRev finds the position of the last occurrence of \

• Left truncates the string until that position

• The -1 is because you want also to remove that last \

Or you can try:

Sub sTest1()
 Dim nPath1 As Variant, st As String
 st = "Root\zTrash - No longer needed\NOC\NOC"
 nPath1 = Split(st, "\")
 ReDim Preserve nPath1(UBound(nPath1) - 1)
 st = Join(nPath1, "\")
 Debug.Print st
End Sub

This is useful if you want to remove more than one item (not just the last one) by changing 1 to 2 or 3 for example:

Sub sTest2()
 Dim nPath1 As Variant, st As String, n As Long
 st = "Root\zTrash - No longer needed\NOC\NOC"

 For n = 1 To 3
    nPath1 = Split(st, "\")
    ReDim Preserve nPath1(UBound(nPath1) - n)
    Debug.Print Join(nPath1, "\")
 Next

Results:

Root\zTrash - No longer needed\NOC
Root\zTrash - No longer needed
Root

If you are fan of long formulas, this is another option:

left(nPath,len(nPath)-len(split(nPath,"\")(ubound(split(nPath,"\")))))

• The idea is that you split by \
• Then you get the last value in the array (with ubound, but you split twice)
• Then you get the difference between it and the whole length
• Then you pass this difference to the left as a parameter