Loop through all sheets to find cells which contain special characters

Question

I have this macro to replace special characters in any sheet in my workbook.

It gets rid of these characters: ! @ # $ % ^ & () /

Sub Macro3()

Dim splChars As String
Dim ch As Variant
Dim splCharArray() As String

splChars = "! @ # $ % ^ & () /" splCharArray = Split(splChars, " ")

For Each ch In splCharArray
    Cells.Replace What:="~" & ch, Replacement:="", LookAt:=xlPart, SearchOrder:= _
      xlByRows, MatchCase:=True
Next ch

End Sub

I need a second macro which would do Cells.Find for every cell in every worksheet then create a new sheet to list all cell addresses and special characters found.

On the web I found:

Public Sub SearchForText()
    Dim rngSearchRange As Range
    Dim vntTextToFind As Variant
    Dim strFirstAddr As String
    Dim lngMatches As Long
    Dim rngFound As Range
  
    On Error GoTo ErrHandler
    vntTextToFind = Application.InputBox( _
      Prompt:="Enter text to find:", _
      Default:="Search...", _
      Type:=2 _
      )
    If VarType(vntTextToFind) = vbBoolean Then Exit Sub
  
    On Error Resume Next
    Set rngSearchRange = Application.InputBox( _
      Prompt:="Enter range for search:", _
      Default:=ActiveCell.Parent.UsedRange.Address, _
      Type:=8 _
      )

    On Error GoTo ErrHandler
    If rngSearchRange Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
    Set rngFound = rngSearchRange.Find( _
      What:=CStr(vntTextToFind), _
      LookIn:=xlValues, _
      LookAt:=xlPart _
      )
  
    If rngFound Is Nothing Then
        MsgBox "No matches were found.", vbInformation
    Else
        With ThisWorkbook.Sheets.Add
            With .Range("A1:B1")
                .Value = Array("Cell", "Value")
                .Font.Bold = True
            End With
            strFirstAddr = rngFound.Address
            Do
                lngMatches = lngMatches + 1
                .Cells(lngMatches + 1, "A").Value = rngFound.Parent.Name & "!" _
                                          & rngFound.Address(0, 0)
                .Cells(lngMatches + 1, "B").Value = rngFound.Value
                Set rngFound = rngSearchRange.FindNext(rngFound)
            Loop Until (rngFound.Address = strFirstAddr)
            .Columns("A:B").AutoFit
        End With
    End If
    Exit Sub
  
ErrHandler:
    MsgBox Err.Description, vbExclamation
End Sub

This code works. My problem is, I need to set a range in which it searches every time and it can only be one sheet, so essentially if I have 10 sheets I need to run this macro 10 times to get the desired result.

I would like to search for each character in every worksheet of my workbook, then create a new sheet and return the address of every cell in an entire workbook which contains any of my declared characters.

I thought I could declare new variable ws as worksheet and loop through all worksheets with the same range selected using for each.

Answer 1

Try this. You just need another loop for the worksheets, and a loop for the Find.

This code doesn't do any replacing.

Sub Macro3()

Dim splChars As String
Dim ch As Variant
Dim splCharArray() As String
Dim r As Range, s As String
Dim ws As Worksheet

splChars = "! @ # $ % ^ & () /"
splCharArray = Split(splChars, " ")

Sheets.Add().Name = "Errors" 'to list characters and location

For Each ch In splCharArray
    For Each ws In Worksheets
        If ws.Name <> "Errors" Then
            Set r = ws.Cells.Find(What:=ch, Lookat:=xlPart, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=True, SearchFormat:=False)
            If Not r Is Nothing Then
                s = r.Address
                Do
                    Sheets("Errors").Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp)(2) = ch 'character
                    Sheets("Errors").Range("B" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp)(2) = r.Address(external:=True)
                    Set r = ws.Cells.FindNext(r)
                Loop Until r.Address = s 'loop until we are back to the first found cell
            End If
        End If
    Next ws
Next ch

End Sub