VBA to copy only specific columns in excel to export as csv - vba

Question

trying to turn an excel worksheet into a csv with only the data I need. Basically I need to only export columns that contain data. I'm pretty new to using vba macros. I've made a worksheet with cells linked to comboboxes for the first row in columns A:AF. The problem is that it seems these combobox-linked cells are treated as data when I either try to directly save the worksheet as a csv or export using the macro further below.
Example of first (column heading/variable name) line and then an example first row of one observation that I would ideally see in the exported csv:
Author,Year,Yield,Treatment
Smith,1999,2.6,notill
Where the Author...Treatment line originally came from selections in validation list restricted cells linked to comboboxes and the Smith...notill observation is something I paste in. Example of what I see instead:
Author,Year,Yield,Treatment,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
Smith,1999,2.6,notill,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
And then all the rows of observations below that are the same number of columns across.
This creates problems since I now have new variables that mess up merges if I do getnames in SAS. I can't specify the columns, since every time this is created and then exported, there are different numbers of columns. There are ways to deal with this if the columns you want are known, eg this answer . But I want to be able to able to say either ideally "copy only the columns that aren't empty," or maybe "copy only the columns with one of the following specific text in the first row" since A2:AF2 can only contain one of 32 certain things if they're not empty.
Here is the the code I've got that copies all these blank columns to a new workbook and saves that.
Sub CopyToCSV()
Dim MyPath As String
Dim MyFileName As String
'The path and file names:
MyPath = "C:\Users\Data\TxY\"
MyFileName = "TxY_" & Sheets("ValidationHeadings").Range("D3").Value & "_" & Format(Date, "ddmmyy")
'Makes sure the path name ends with "\":
If Not Right(MyPath, 1) = "\" Then MyPath = MyPath & "\"
'Makes sure the filename ends with ".csv"
If Not Right(MyFileName, 4) = ".csv" Then MyFileName = MyFileName & ".csv"
'Copies the sheet to a new workbook:
Sheets("TxYdata").Copy
'The new workbook becomes Activeworkbook:
With ActiveWorkbook
'Saves the new workbook to given folder / filename:
.SaveAs Filename:= _
MyPath & MyFileName, _
FileFormat:=xlCSV, _
CreateBackup:=False
'Closes the file
.Close False
End With
End Sub
I know this has to be pretty simple (a column with nothing in it should stand out somehow, right?) but I searched for like 4 hours yesterday on how to do this. I would rather not demarcate the empty columns somehow in each worksheet that I am turning into a csv. Is there something I can add to
Sheets("TxYdata").Copy
to get it to only copy columns where I actually entered data, when I don't have a consistent number of columns in every sheet? Or something else that gets the job done.
Thanks so much!

Answer 1

Test this code.
Sub TransToCSV()
Dim vDB, vR() As String, vTxt()
Dim i As Long, n As Long, j As Integer
Dim objStream
Dim strTxt As String
Dim rngDB As Range, Ws As Worksheet
Dim MyPath As String, myFileName As String
Dim FullName As String
MyPath = "C:\Users\Data\TxY\"
myFileName = "TxY_" & Sheets("ValidationHeadings").Range("D3").Value & "_" & Format(Date, "ddmmyy")
If Not Right(MyPath, 1) = "\" Then MyPath = MyPath & "\"
If Not Right(myFileName, 4) = ".csv" Then myFileName = myFileName & ".csv"
FullName = MyPath & myFileName
Set Ws = Sheets("TxYdata")
Set objStream = CreateObject("ADODB.Stream")
With Ws
Set rngDB = .Range("a1", "d" & .Range("a" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row)
'Set rngDB = .Range("a1").CurrentRegion <~~ Else use this codle
End With
vDB = rngDB
For i = 1 To UBound(vDB, 1)
n = n + 1
ReDim vR(1 To UBound(vDB, 2))
For j = 1 To UBound(vDB, 2)
vR(j) = vDB(i, j)
Next j
ReDim Preserve vTxt(1 To n)
vTxt(n) = Join(vR, ",")
Next i
strTxt = Join(vTxt, vbCrLf)
With objStream
'.Charset = "utf-8"
.Open
.WriteText strTxt
.SaveToFile FullName, 2
.Close
End With
Set objStream = Nothing
End Sub

Answer 2

You can approach this in different ways. Here is what I would do. Add a new sheet to your workbook. Have a FOR loop in your function to go through all columns in your sheet. For each column, you can use something like this to check if it holds any data:
iDataCount = Application.WorksheetFunction.CountIf(<worksheet object>.Range(<your column i.e. `"F:F"`>), "<>" & "")
If iDataCount is 0 then you know the column is empty. If its anything other than 0, copy it in the new sheet. Once you have complete the FOR loop, copy the new sheet into the .csv file. Finally remove the new sheet from your workbook (or you can leave it there. If you do, you just have to clear it before you run the process next time .. which can be done via the code as well)