Excel User Defined Function for Ping

Here's another Excel UDF that I'm sharing with everyone. This User Defined Function allows a user to execute a Windows ping command from an Excel cell. Currently this code is written to parse a string for an IP Address and ping that address (that's the desired effect I was looking for). If you wish to ping hostnames as well, you can make the following subsitution

Old: retVal = sPing(FindIP(sHost), 1, 200)

New: retVal = sPing(sHost, 1, 200)

Here are some examples of how to use the UDF and the code itself.

Ex. =ping("192.168.1.0")        'returns average ms response time

Ex. =ping("192.168.1.0")        'returns received ICMP packets

'--------------------------------------------

'Ping UDF

'--------------------------------------------

'A ping function formatted for use as an Excel cell formula

'sHost - the host to be pinged

'selectVal - optional parameter that defines what should be returned

'          - refer to sPing return type for clarification of what 

'            value to be used

'          - the default return is the millisecond average ping time
Function Ping(sHost As String, Optional selectVal As Integer) As String
Dim retVal As Variant
retVal = sPing(FindIP(sHost), 1, 200)
If retVal(1) <> 0 Then
    If selectVal = 0 Then
        Ping = retVal(4)
    Else
        Ping = retVal(selectVal)
    End If
Else
    Ping = "#N/A"
End If

End Function
 

'--------------------------------------------

'Find IP Address

'--------------------------------------------

'A support function that parses input strTest through a regular

'expression to find an IP Address

'A blank value is returned if no IP address can be found
Function FindIP(strTest As String) As String
    Dim RegEx As Object
    Dim valid As Boolean
    Dim Matches As Object
    Dim i As Integer
    Set RegEx = CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
   
    RegEx.Pattern = "\b(?:\d{1,3}\.){3}\d{1,3}\b"
    valid = RegEx.test(strTest)
    If valid Then
        Set Matches = RegEx.Execute(strTest)
        FindIP = Matches(0)
    Else
        FindIP = ""
    End If
End Function

'--------------------------------------------

'Ping Support Function

'--------------------------------------------

'This function runs a cmd ping request 

'sHost    - the host to be pinged

'numPings - the number of ICMP ping packets to send

'msDelay  - the ping timeout delay

'

'The return value from this function is an array with the following 

'values defined

'sPing(0) - Transmitted ICMP Packets

'sPing(1) - Received ICMP Packets

'sPing(2) - Lost ICMP Packets

'sPing(3) - Maximum Round Trip Time

'sPing(4) - Average Round Trip Time

'sPing(5) - Comments
Function sPing(sHost As String, numPings As Integer, msDelay As Integer) As Variant
    Dim oFSO As Object, oShell As Object, oTempFile As Object
    Dim sLine As String, sFilename As String
    Dim retVal(5) As String
    
    Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
    Set oShell = CreateObject("Wscript.Shell")
   
   
    sFilename = oFSO.GetTempName
    oShell.Run "cmd /c ping -n " & numPings & " -w " & msDelay & " " & sHost & " > " & sFilename, 0, True
    Set oTempFile = oFSO.OpenTextFile(sFilename, 1)
    Do While oTempFile.AtEndOfStream <> True
    sLine = oTempFile.Readline
    cmdStr = cmdStr & Trim(sLine)
    Loop
    oTempFile.Close
    oFSO.DeleteFile (sFilename)

    If cmdStr = "IP address must be specified." Then
        retVal(5) = "IP address must be specified"
        sPing = retVal
        Exit Function
    End If
   
    If InStr(1, cmdStr, "Ping request could not find host", vbTextCompare) > 0 Then
        retVal(6) = "Could not find host"
        sPing = retVal
        Exit Function
    End If
   
    txLoc = InStr(1, cmdStr, "Sent = ", vbTextCompare)
    If txLoc > 0 Then
        txLoc = txLoc + 7
        txLoc2 = InStr(txLoc, cmdStr, ",", vbTextCompare)
        retVal(0) = Trim(Mid(cmdStr, txLoc, txLoc2 - txLoc))
    End If
   
    rxLoc = InStr(1, cmdStr, "Received = ", vbTextCompare)
    If rxLoc > 0 Then
        rxLoc = rxLoc + 11
        rxLoc2 = InStr(rxLoc, cmdStr, ",", vbTextCompare)
        retVal(1) = Trim(Mid(cmdStr, rxLoc, rxLoc2 - rxLoc))
    End If
   
    ltLoc = InStr(1, cmdStr, "Lost = ", vbTextCompare)
    If ltLoc > 0 Then
        ltLoc = ltLoc + 7
        ltLoc2 = InStr(ltLoc, cmdStr, "(", vbTextCompare)
        retVal(2) = Trim(Mid(cmdStr, ltLoc, ltLoc2 - ltLoc))
    End If
   
    maxLoc = InStr(1, cmdStr, "Maximum = ", vbTextCompare)
    If maxLoc > 0 Then
        maxLoc = maxLoc + 10
        maxLoc2 = InStr(maxLoc, cmdStr, "ms", vbTextCompare)
        retVal(3) = Trim(Mid(cmdStr, maxLoc, maxLoc2 - maxLoc))
    End If
   
    aveLoc = InStr(1, cmdStr, "Average = ", vbTextCompare)
    If aveLoc > 0 Then
        aveLoc = aveLoc + 10
        aveLoc2 = InStr(aveLoc, cmdStr, "ms", vbTextCompare)
        retVal(4) = Trim(Mid(cmdStr, aveLoc, aveLoc2 - aveLoc))
    End If
    sPing = retVal
End Function