Turn Excel range into VBA string

To optimize performance my function emulates a String Builder.

Variables

• Text: A very large string to hold the data
• CELLLENGTH: A contant that determines the size of the BufferSize
• BufferSize: The initial size of Text string
• Data(): An Array derived from the source range

As the rows and columns of the Data() array are iterated over the current element (Data(x, y)) value replaces a portion of the Text string. The text string is resized as needed. This reduces the number of concatenations immensely. The initial BufferSize is set pretty high. I got my best results, 0.8632813 Second(s), by reducing CELLLENGTH to 25.

Download Sample Data from Sample-Videos.com

Results

Code

Function getRangeText(Source As Range, Optional rowDelimiter As String = "@", Optional ColumnDelimiter As String = ",")
    Const CELLLENGTH = 255
    Dim Data()
    Dim text As String
    Dim BufferSize As Double, length As Double, x As Long, y As Long
    BufferSize = CELLLENGTH * Source.Cells.Count
    text = Space(BufferSize)

    Data = Source.Value

    For x = 1 To UBound(Data, 1)
        If x > 1 Then
            Mid(text, length + 1, Len(rowDelimiter)) = rowDelimiter
            length = length + Len(rowDelimiter)
        End If

        For y = 1 To UBound(Data, 2)
            If length + Len(Data(x, y)) + 2 > Len(text) Then text = text & Space(CDbl(BufferSize / 4))
            If y > 1 Then
                Mid(text, length + 1, Len(ColumnDelimiter)) = ColumnDelimiter
                length = length + Len(ColumnDelimiter))
            End If

            Mid(text, length + 1, Len(Data(x, y))) = Data(x, y)
            length = length + Len(Data(x, y))
        Next
    Next

    getRangeText = Left(text, length) & rowDelimiter
End Function

Test

Sub TestGetRangeText()
    Dim s As String
    Dim Start: Start = Timer

    s = getRangeText(ActiveSheet.UsedRange)

    Debug.Print "Execution Time: "; Timer - Start; "Second(s)"
    Debug.Print "Rows: "; ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Rows.Count; "Columns: "; ActiveSheet.UsedRange.Columns.Count
    Debug.Print "Result Length: "; Format(Len(s), "#,###")
End Sub

Here's a quick way to test (Note: this will only work with Excel 2016 (or if you have the TextJoin() function).

First, in the empty column D, do =C1&"@", so you get your last column filled with the cell+@

Then, say in cell E1, =TEXTJOIN(",",TRUE,A1:C5) (Note: TRUE there means to skip blanks. If you have blanks, and want to keep them, change that to FALSE).

THen, on that cell, run

=Substitute(E1,"@,","@")

Or combine the formulas into one: =SUBSTITUTE(TEXTJOIN(",",TRUE,A1:C4),"@,","@").

If you need vba, just throw the formula into a VBA macro and run like that.

Here is a UDF that returns the desired output:

EDIT Changed to add EOL at the end.

Option Explicit
Function MultiJoin(Rng As Range, Delimiter As String, EOL As String) As String
    Dim V As Variant, W As Variant
    Dim COL As Collection
    Dim I As Long, J As Long

V = Rng
Set COL = New Collection
ReDim W(1 To UBound(V, 2))
For I = 1 To UBound(V, 1)
    For J = 1 To UBound(V, 2)
        W(J) = V(I, J)
    Next J
    COL.Add W
Next I

ReDim V(1 To COL.Count)
For I = 1 To COL.Count
    V(I) = Join(COL(I), Delimiter)
Next I

W = Join(V, EOL)
MultiJoin = W & EOL

End Function

One could shorten the code by using WorksheetFunctions, but I would guess execution time would be slower.

Shortened Code

Option Explicit
Function MultiJoin(Rng As Range, Delimiter As String, EOL As String) As String
    Dim V As Variant, W As Variant
    Dim I As Long, J As Long

V = Rng
With WorksheetFunction

For I = 1 To UBound(V, 1)
    V(I, 1) = Join(.Index(V, I, 0), Delimiter)
Next I
MultiJoin = Join(.Transpose(.Index(V, 0, 1)), EOL) & EOL

End With

End Function

This solution will require either a reference to the Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object Library in your project or some other way of fetching the contents of the clipboard (like through an API call).

Function TurnExcelRangeIntoVBAString(Optional cellDelimiter As String = ",", _
                                     Optional rowDelimiter As String = "@") _
         As String

    Dim rng As Range
    Set rng = ActiveSheet.UsedRange
    rng.Copy

    Dim clip As New MSForms.DataObject
    Dim txt As String
    clip.GetFromClipboard
    txt = clip.GetText()
    txt = Replace(Replace(txt, vbTab, cellDelimiter), vbCrLf, rowDelimiter)

    TurnExcelRangeIntoVBAString = txt
End Function