Replace method and changing format? - excel

Question

I'm using vba method Replace, and I need to change every "/" to ",". This looks like a simple task so I use:
ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(2).Cells.Replace What:="_/_", Replacement:=",", LookAt:=xlPart, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=True, _
ReplaceFormat:=True
The problem is when one of cells has value like:
04_/_2018
And the result is:
4,2018
instead of:
04,2018
All of my cells in this workbook has text formating before and after aplying the code. My guess is that Excel in a process is changing the format to general for a moment and it cut offs not necessary for a number left zero.
I've tried to bypass this issue by changing parameters of the method (none of this worked) and changing the decimal separator from "," to ".". This helped when using find and replace by hand from Excel, but when I record it and try to use as Macro it doesn't work. What can I do to prevent Excel from cutting off zeros in this scenarios?

Answer 1

If you want 04,2018 then use .Find/.FindNext then replace+reconstruct the value before placing in the cell.
Is this what you are trying?
Sub Sample()
Dim oRange As Range, aCell As Range, bCell As Range
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim ExitLoop As Boolean
Dim SearchString As String
On Error GoTo Whoa
Set ws = Worksheets("Sheet1")
Set oRange = ws.UsedRange
SearchString = "_/_"
Set aCell = oRange.Find(What:=SearchString, LookIn:=xlValues, _
LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, SearchDirection:=xlNext, _
MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False)
If Not aCell Is Nothing Then
Set bCell = aCell
If Left(aCell.Value, 1) = 0 Then
aCell.Value = "'" & Replace(aCell.Value, SearchString, ",")
Else
aCell.Value = Replace(aCell.Value, SearchString, ",")
End If
Do While ExitLoop = False
Set aCell = oRange.FindNext(After:=aCell)
If Not aCell Is Nothing Then
If aCell.Address = bCell.Address Then Exit Do
If Left(aCell.Value, 1) = 0 Then
aCell.Value = "'" & Replace(aCell.Value, SearchString, ",")
Else
aCell.Value = Replace(aCell.Value, SearchString, ",")
End If
Else
ExitLoop = True
End If
Loop
Else
MsgBox SearchString & " not Found"
End If
Exit Sub
Whoa:
MsgBox Err.Description
End Sub
Screenshot

Answer 2

The leading zeroes are automatically removed in Excel by default. Thus 04,2014 is changed to 4,2014. A way to work around this is to format the cells as Text, adding this line before the Replace():
ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(2).Cells.NumberFormat = "#"
Formatting to Text has a lot of unpleasant changes, e.g. the text goes to the left and Excel does not recognize the dates/numbers by default.
This is a simple sample of the code, changing 1 cell:
Sub TestMe()
ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1).Cells.NumberFormat = "General"
Range("B5") = "05_2018"
ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1).Cells.NumberFormat = "#"
Range("B5") = Replace(Range("B5"), "_", ".")
End Sub
Formatting to text can work like this, for bigger, unknown ranges:
Sub TestMe()
Worksheets(1).Cells.NumberFormat = "General"
Range("A1:B15") = "05_2018"
Dim findRange As Range
Set findRange = Worksheets(1).Cells.Find("_")
Dim myCell As Range
If Not findRange Is Nothing Then
For Each myCell In findRange
myCell.Replace "_", ","
Next myCell
End If
End Sub