Remove illegal characters while saving workbook Excel VBA - vba

Question

this code basically reformats an xls file and saves it as an xlsx. however it uses G2 & H2 to grab the filename for the newly formatted file.
So that means certain characters can't be in the file name. I added a chunk of code to replace those characters (
' Remove/Replace Invalid File Name Characters
WkbName = Range("H2")
MyArray = Array("<", ">", "|", "/", "*", "\", ".", "?", """")
For X = LBound(MyArray) To UBound(MyArray)
WkbName = Replace(WkbName, MyArray(X), "_", 1)
Next X
'MsgBox WkbName 'dispaly file name with illegal characters removed
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:= _
WBPath & "\BOM_" & Range("G2") & "_" & WkbName & ".xlsx" _
, FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbook, CreateBackup:=False
)
activeworkbook.saves as is where the debugger always takes me
I'm getting an error message saying there's always an illegal character even if its just normal text in h2, am I missing something?
full code below
Sub FormatBOMExport()
'
' FormatBOMExportPnV Macro
'
Application.ScreenUpdating = False
Application.DisplayAlerts = False
' delete extra sheets
Sheets(Array("Sheet2", "Sheet3")).Select
ActiveWindow.SelectedSheets.Delete
WBPath = Application.ActiveWorkbook.Path
OrgFile = Application.ActiveWorkbook.FullName
Range("B1").Select
With Selection
.HorizontalAlignment = xlGeneral
.VerticalAlignment = xlBottom
.WrapText = True
.Orientation = 0
.AddIndent = False
.IndentLevel = 0
.ShrinkToFit = False
.ReadingOrder = xlContext
.MergeCells = False
End With
Columns("A:M").Select
Selection.Replace What:="" & Chr(10) & "", Replacement:="", LookAt:=xlPart, _
SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
ReplaceFormat:=False
Selection.Columns.AutoFit
Selection.Rows.AutoFit
Columns("J:J").Select
With Selection
.HorizontalAlignment = xlGeneral
.VerticalAlignment = xlBottom
.WrapText = True
.Orientation = 0
.AddIndent = False
.IndentLevel = 0
.ShrinkToFit = False
.ReadingOrder = xlContext
.MergeCells = False
End With
' Columns("J:J").Select
' Columns("J:J").ColumnWidth = 100
' Selection.Rows.AutoFit
Columns("G:G").EntireColumn.AutoFit
Range("G2").Select
' Remove/Replace Invalid File Name Characters
WkbName = Range("H2")
MyArray = Array("<", ">", "|", "/", "*", "\", ".", "?", """")
For X = LBound(MyArray) To UBound(MyArray)
WkbName = Replace(WkbName, MyArray(X), "_", 1)
Next X
'MsgBox WkbName 'dispaly file name with illegal characters removed
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:= _
WBPath & "\BOM_" & Range("G2") & "_" & WkbName & ".xlsx" _
, FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbook, CreateBackup:=False
If Len(Dir$(OrgFile)) > 0 Then
Kill OrgFile
End If
Application.DisplayAlerts = True
Application.ScreenUpdating = True
' MsgBox OrgFile & " has been deleted and saved as " & "BOM_" & Range("G2") & "_" & Range("H2") & ".xlsx"
End Sub
`
please excuse my notes and random crap in the code. I always clean it up before I give it to others

Answer 1

Because there could be more illegal characters in the filename. Your approach is right but it's not comprehensive list of illegal characters to remove or replace from the filename before saving it. For eg. these characters are missing from the array in your code -> : & . However it is advised to keep filename rid of other allowed special characters too.
Below, I am providing the function which returns a safe string that can be used to produce filename before saving.
Function ReplaceIllegalCharacters(strIn As String, strChar As String) As String
Dim strSpecialChars As String
Dim i As Long
strSpecialChars = "~""#%&*:<>?{|}/\[]" & Chr(10) & Chr(13)
For i = 1 To Len(strSpecialChars)
strIn = Replace(strIn , Mid$(strSpecialChars, i, 1), strChar)
Next
ReplaceIllegalCharacters = strIn
End Function
Specifically, in your code, replace the ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs line with this line:
ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs Filename:= _
WBPath & "\BOM_" & Range("G2").Value2 & "_" & ReplaceIllegalCharacters(Range("H2").Value2, "_") & ".xlsx" _
, FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbook, CreateBackup:=False