How to prevent format change with replace - excel

Question

I made a macro that calculates some formulas, that are stored as text at first in one column, by replacing some codes by their associated int values and later print the result in the desired column.
e.g. dAGR99001/dAGR99002 is replaced by 2/2 since their values for certain month/year are both 2, later this text formula converted into a proper formula by adding the equal sign at the beginning and prints the result of it in another column.
My problem is that when replacing the codes by their associated int values, Excel automatically converts it to a date. For example on the above formula, it should be replaced by 2/2 but instead, it's returning 2/Feb (2/Fev in Portuguese) as in 2/2/2019 and when later calculating it the final result is 43498 (days since 1/1/1900).
How can I prevent this from happening?
→
Note that both the column where the text formula is and the associated int values of the codes are stored has General format. I also tried to save them as Number or Text but the problem still persisted.
This is my code
Sub Looper()
Dim x As Integer
For x = 10 To 60
getformulas x
Next x
End Sub
Sub getformulas(MonthNum As Integer)
Dim wb As Workbook
Dim wsLookup As Worksheet
Dim wsData As Worksheet
Dim wsPaste As Worksheet
Dim aLookup() As Variant
Dim aData() As Variant
Dim lCodesLookupCol As Long
Dim lCodesConvertCol As Long
Dim i As Long
Dim lrow As Long
Call OptimizeCode_Begin
With Sheets("Variaveis")
lrow = .Range("A:BA").Find(What:="", after:=.Range("A2"), searchdirection:=xlPrevious).Row
End With
Set wb = ActiveWorkbook
Set wsData = wb.Worksheets("Indicadores")
Set wsLookup = wb.Worksheets("Variaveis")
Set wsPaste = wb.Worksheets("Formulas")
aLookup = wsLookup.Range("A2:BA" & lrow) '("A2:AO441")
lCodesLookupCol = LBound(aLookup, 2)
lCodesConvertCol = UBound(aLookup, 2)
With wsData.Range("H2", wsData.Cells(wsData.Rows.Count, "H").End(xlUp))
For i = 1 To UBound(aLookup, 1)
.Replace aLookup(i, lCodesLookupCol), aLookup(i, MonthNum - 4), xlPart, , False
Next i
If .Cells.Count = 1 Then
ReDim aData(1 To 1, 1 To 1)
aData(1, 1) = .Formula
Else
aData = .Formula
End If
For i = 1 To UBound(aData, 1)
If Len(aData(i, 1)) > 0 And Left(aData(i, 1), 1) <> "=" Then aData(i, 1) = "=" & aData(i, 1)
wsData.Cells(i + 1, MonthNum) = aData(i, 1)
If Left(aData(i, 1), 1) <> "=" Then
wsData.Cells(i + 1, MonthNum).Value = "Error"
End If
On Error Resume Next
Next i
End If
Call OptimizeCode_End
Application.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
Application.EnableEvents = True
End With
Worksheets("Formulas").Range("B2:B228").Copy
Worksheets("Indicadores").Range("H2:H228").PasteSpecial Paste:=xlPasteFormulas
Application.Goto Worksheets("Indicadores").Cells(2, 6)
End Sub