Replace the VBA code into Arrays for fast processing - excel

Question

I was using this code and it was working perfectly on small amount of data. It works both way if the data is filtered or not.
Dim cell As Range
Dim i As Integer
Dim specialCharacters As String
specialCharacters = " !##$%^&*()_+-=[]{};':"",.<>/?\|"
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
For Each cell In Selection
For i = 1 To Len(specialCharacters)
cell.Value = Replace(cell.Value, Mid(specialCharacters, i, 1), "")
Next i
Next cell
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
But when i convert this code into arrays found the issue that is when it pastes the data to the cells it was exact copy of the above cells and some of them gives an error #NA. I hope someone can help me to fix the issue.
Sub RemoveSpecialCharacters()
Dim cellValues As Variant
Dim i As Long, j As Long
Dim specialCharacters As String
specialCharacters = " ':"",.<>/?|"
Application.ScreenUpdating = FALSE
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
Dim filteredRange As Range
Set filteredRange = Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeVisible)
If Not filteredRange Is Nothing Then
For Each Area In filteredRange.Areas
cellValues = Area.value
For i = 1 To UBound(cellValues, 1)
For j = 1 To UBound(cellValues, 2)
Dim value As String
value = cellValues(i, j)
For k = 1 To Len(specialCharacters)
value = Replace(value, Mid(specialCharacters, k, 1), "")
Next k
cellValues(i, j) = value
Next j
Next i
Area.value = cellValues
Next Area
End If
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
Application.ScreenUpdating = TRUE
End Sub

Answer 1

Instead of looping cell-by-cell, try using Range.Replace here. The following is semi-tested:
Sub RemoveSpecialCharacters(ByVal rng As Range)
Dim specialCharacters As String
specialCharacters = " !##$%^&*()_+-=[]{};':"",.<>/?\|"
Dim wildcards As String
wildcards = "?~*"
Dim i As Long
For i = 1 To Len(specialCharacters)
Dim specialCharacter As String
specialCharacter = Mid$(specialCharacters, i, 1)
' Escape wildcards using the ~
If InStr(wildcards, specialCharacter) > 0 Then
specialCharacter = "~" & specialCharacter
End If
rng.Replace _
What:=specialCharacter, _
Replacement:="", _
LookAt:=xlPart
Next
End Sub
Call it like the following:
RemoveSpecialCharacters rng:=Selection
or
RemoveSpecialCharacters rng:=Selection.Cells(xlCellTypeVisible)
Note that Selection.Cells(xlCellTypeVisible) may return unexpected results if Selection is a single cell.
In that case, use:
If Selection.CountLarge > 1 Then
RemoveSpecialCharacters rng:=Selection.Cells(xlCellTypeVisible)
Else
RemoveSpecialCharacters rng:=Selection
End If