Excel VBA - String Conactenation with delimiter and single quotes - vba

Question

I have a column of cells. They need to be concatenated into a single string with multiple delimiters in between.
I need something like the result in column 2 from the values in column 1
Column 1 | column 2
a1 | 'a1'
a2 | 'a1';'a2'
a3 | 'a1';'a2';'a3'
a4 | 'a1';'a2';'a3';'a4'
a5 | 'a1';'a2';'a3';'a4';'a5'
Currently I use the following formula
Column 1 | Column 2
a1 | ="'"&a1&"'"&";"
a2 | =b1&"'"&a2&"'"&";"
a3 |
and copy it down the column B2.
Is there a VBA code that could help me do that. I did find some that would add a single delimiter ' between the cells but I could not modify it to add multiple delimiters.
It would be very helpful could share a VBA code for the same.

Answer 1

You can use the Join method in VBA with a given delimeter:
e.g.
someArray = Array("some", "words", "here")
Debug.Print "'" & Join(someArray, "';'") & "'"
'// will print:
'// 'some';'words';'here'

Answer 2

I know you asked for VBA, but you can do this with a formula:
In B2:
=IF(ROW()=2,TEXTJOIN(";",TRUE,"'"&B1,"'"&A2&"'"),TEXTJOIN(";",TRUE,B1,"'"&A2&"'"))
and drag down:
Or
In B1, use ="'"&A1&"'", then in B2 (and drag down):
=SUBSTITUTE(TEXTJOIN(";",TRUE,"'"&B1,"'"&A2&"'"),"'","",1)

Answer 3

You can achieve desired output using this formula:
=CONCATENATE(B2, " ; '", A3, "'")
First put value from cell A2 to B2 manually (using ="'" & A2 & "'" formula) and then paste this formula in cell B3 and drag it down.
Here is the result with updated formula:
UPDATE (Thanks to BruceWayne)
Enter the value in cell B2 using:
="'" & A2 & "'"
So it will take the first '

Answer 4

I would just do a simple loop like so.
Sub combineRows()
'start and end rows, assuming column A
Dim startRow, endRow As Integer
Dim myString, myAdd As String
startRow = 2
endRow = 6
For i = startRow To endRow
myAdd = "'" & Range("A" & i) & "'" & ";"
myString = myString + myAdd
Range("B" & i) = myString
Next i
End Sub

Answer 5

Here's my JoinRange function. It has a few more options than you're looking for.
Public Function JoinRange(rInput As Range, _
Optional sDelim As String = vbNullString, _
Optional sLineStart As String = vbNullString, _
Optional sLineEnd As String = vbNullString, _
Optional sBlank As String = vbNullString, _
Optional sQuotes As String = vbNullString, _
Optional IgnoreBlanks As Boolean = True) As String
Dim vaCells As Variant
Dim i As Long, j As Long
Dim lCnt As Long
Dim aReturn() As String
If rInput.Cells.Count = 1 Then
ReDim aReturn(1 To 1)
aReturn(1) = sQuotes & rInput.Value & sQuotes
Else
vaCells = rInput.Value
ReDim aReturn(1 To rInput.Cells.Count)
For i = LBound(vaCells, 1) To UBound(vaCells, 1)
For j = LBound(vaCells, 2) To UBound(vaCells, 2)
If Len(vaCells(i, j)) = 0 Then
If Not IgnoreBlanks Then
lCnt = lCnt + 1
aReturn(lCnt) = sQuotes & sBlank & sQuotes
End If
Else
lCnt = lCnt + 1
aReturn(lCnt) = sQuotes & vaCells(i, j) & sQuotes
End If
Next j
Next i
ReDim Preserve aReturn(1 To lCnt)
End If
JoinRange = sLineStart & Join(aReturn, sDelim) & sLineEnd
End Function
use it in B1 like
=JoinRange($A$1:A1,";")
and fill down.

Answer 6

For the sake of avoiding visual confusion, I will offer CHAR(39)&CHAR(59)&CHAR(39) in place of "';'".
In B1, use this:
=CHAR(39)&TEXTJOIN(CHAR(39)&CHAR(59)&CHAR(39), TRUE, A$1:A1)&CHAR(39)
Fill down.
... or if the end result is the only important thing,
=CHAR(39)&TEXTJOIN(CHAR(39)&CHAR(59)&CHAR(39), TRUE, A1:A5)&CHAR(39)
A single tick (aka single quote or ') is ASCII character 39 and a semi-colon is ASCII character 59.