Use Find/Replace to clear vbNullString - excel

Question

I have a spreadsheet that is generated as a report in our Enterprise system and downloaded into an Excel spreadsheet. Blank cells in the resulting spreadsheet are not really blank, even though no data is present - and the blank cells do Not contain a 'space' character.
For example, the following cell formula in A2 returns TRUE (if A1 is a blank cell):
=IF(A1="","TRUE","FALSE")
However,
=ISBLANK(A1)
returns FALSE.
You can replicate this problem by typing an apostrophe (') in a cell and copying the cell. Then, use Paste Special...Values to paste to another cell and the apostrophe is not visible in the pasted cell, nor in the Formula Bar. There appears to be a clear cell, but it will evaluate to FALSE using ISBLANK.
This causes sorting to result in the fake blank cells at the top of an ascending sort, when they need to be at the bottom of the sort.
I can use a vba loop to fix the fake blanks, to loop through every column and evaluate
IF Cell.VALUE = "" Then
Cell.Clear
but because the spreadsheet has tens of thousands of rows of data and as many as 50 columns, this adds substantial overhead to the program and I would prefer to use FIND and Replace.
Here is the code that does not currently work:
Range("ZZ1").Copy
Range("Table1[#All]").Select
With Selection
.Replace What:="", Replacement:=.PasteSpecial(xlPasteValues, xlNone, False, False), _
LookAt:=xlWhole, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
ReplaceFormat:=False
End With
The following things do not work to clear the fake blank cells either:
Replacement:= vbnullstring
Replacement:= ""
Replacement:= Cells.Clear
Replacement:= Cells.ClearContents
Replacement:= Cells.Value = ""
I have tried 20 other things that do not work either.

Answer 1

Try this
With ActiveSheet.UsedRange
.NumberFormat = "General"
.Value = .Value
End With

Answer 2

A variant array provides an efficient way of handling the false empties:
Sub CullEm()
Dim lngRow As Long
Dim lngCol As Long
Dim X
X = ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Value2
For lngRow = 1 To UBound(X, 1)
For lngCol = 1 To UBound(X, 2)
If Len(X(lngRow, lngCol)) = 0 Then X(lngRow, lngCol) = vbNullString
Next
Next
ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Value2 = X
End Sub

Answer 3

The problem is that you are searching for a hidden .PrefixCharacter which are not covered by the standard replacement function. For more information on this you might want to visit MSDN: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff194949.aspx
In order to find and replace these you'll have to use the .Find function because it can look at the formulas (rather than only at a cell's value). Here is a short sample code to illustrate that:
Option Explicit
Public Sub tmpTest()
Dim cell As Range
Dim rngTest As Range
Dim strFirstAddress As String
Set rngTest = ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(1).Range("A1:G7")
Set cell = rngTest.Find("", LookIn:=xlFormulas, lookat:=xlPart)
If Not cell Is Nothing Then
strFirstAddress = cell.Address
Do
cell.Value = vbNullString
Set cell = rngTest.FindNext(cell)
Loop While strFirstAddress <> cell.Address And Not cell Is Nothing
End If
End Sub

Answer 4

I can't figure out anything that you could put in Replacement to get that to work. I'm afraid you're stuck looping. You can reduce the overhead by using .Find instead of looping through every cell.
Sub ClearBlanks()
Dim rng As Range
Dim rFound As Range
Dim sFirstAdd As String
Dim rFoundAll As Range
Set rng = Sheet1.UsedRange
Set rFound = rng.Find(vbNullString, , xlValues, xlWhole)
If Not rFound Is Nothing Then
sFirstAdd = rFound.Address
Do
If rFoundAll Is Nothing Then
Set rFoundAll = rFound
Else
Set rFoundAll = Application.Union(rFound, rFoundAll)
End If
Set rFound = rng.FindNext(rFound)
Loop Until rFound.Address = sFirstAdd
End If
If Not rFoundAll Is Nothing Then
rFoundAll.ClearContents
End If
End Sub

Answer 5

You can use the table filter to select the (seemingly) blank cells in each column and clear the contents. This should be quicker than finding each blank cell.
Sub clearBlankTableEntries()
Dim tbl As ListObject, c As Byte
Set tbl = ActiveSheet.ListObjects("testTable")
For c = 1 To tbl.Range.Columns.Count
tbl.Range.AutoFilter Field:=c, Criteria1:="="
Range(tbl.Name & "[Column" & c & "]").ClearContents
tbl.Range.AutoFilter Field:=c
Next c
End Sub