Excel VBA - Date Filter AND blanks - vba

Question

I am using VBA to make date filters. This filter will take the dates I specify in sheet 1 to and filter the column I have selected at the moment. Ideally, I would like to have all the values with the date in that range PLUS all blanks (where no date has been defined).
Set rep= ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("sheet2")
Set sh1 = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1")
Dim anf As String
Dim ende As String
Dim count As Integer
anf = ">=" + sh1.Range("J2")
ende = "<=" + sh1.Range("J3")
rep.Select
count = Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlToLeft)).Columns.count
rep.Range("$A$4:$GD$11668").AutoFilter Field:=count, Criteria1:=anf, Operator:=xlAnd, Criteria2:=ende, Operator _
:=xlFilterValues
This code functions beautifully. However, it only filters the date. My attempts to add blanks as well (in addition to it) have failed.
For example, adding a 3rd criterion for blanks:
rep.Range("$A$4:$GD$11668").AutoFilter Field:=count, Criteria1:=anf, Operator:=xlAnd, Criteria2:=ende, Operator:=xlAnd, Criteria3:="=", Operator _
:=xlFilterValues
I get an application defined or object defined error.
Any ideas? Thanks!

Answer 1

You can't do more than 3 criteria at the same time that way -if you notice in the user interface you can only get 2 "and" or whatever criteria at the same time.
However, you can do an array and set that as criteria. Refer to this example
Try the following example
Sub Sample()
Dim SampleRange As Range
Dim ArrayDates(2) As Date
ArrayDates(0) = "1-1-2017"
ArrayDates(1) = "1-2-2017"
ArrayDates(2) = Now()
'1st approach, add the array directly in the criteria
Set SampleRange = Range("A1:A31")
SampleRange.AutoFilter Field:=1, Operator:= _
xlFilterValues, Criteria1:=Array(2, "1/1/2017", 2, "1/2/2017", 2, "1/3/2017")
'2nd approach: define an array and just start to call it as needed
SampleRange.AutoFilter Field:=1, Operator:= _
xlFilterValues, Criteria1:=Array(ArrayDates(1))
End Sub

Answer 2

First off, your error was caused by trying to give Autofilter 3 criteria - it can only handle 2, and it had no idea what to do with the extra arguments you passed it.
Now, that's not the only problem with what you're trying. Notice that if you attempt to filter between two dates manually through the UI, you can do it, but you can't also add blanks. It's kind of a one-thing-or-the-other situation. I also tried Brian's solution at first, but Excel just doesn't work that way. At least, I couldn't coax it into working that way.
This leaves us with two very ugly possible solutions. Either you modify the table you're filtering (add an extra column with a formula or something along those lines) to give Autofilter something else to filter on, or manually set all the valid criteria. Here's how you do the latter:
Private Sub setFilter()
Set rep = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("sheet2")
Set sh1 = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1")
Dim anf As String
Dim ende As String
Dim count As Integer
anf = sh1.Range("J2")
ende = sh1.Range("J3")
rep.Select
count = Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlToLeft)).Columns.count
rep.Range("$A$4:$GD$11668").AutoFilter Field:=count, Criteria1:=GetValidDates(CDate(anf), CDate(ende)), Operator:=xlFilterValues
End Sub
Private Function GetValidDates(ByVal startD As Date, ByVal endD As Date) As String()
Dim numDays As Integer: numDays = endD - startD + 1
Dim dateArray() As String
ReDim dateArray(numDays) ' (numDays + 1) entries
Dim i As Integer
For i = 0 To numDays - 1
dateArray(i) = CStr(startD + i)
Next
dateArray(i) = ""
GetValidDates = dateArray
End Function
This builds an array of all dates between and including the start and end (as well as an extra empty "" entry to allow blanks). It's ugly and I'm not sure how well it'll work for really big date ranges (might be slow), but at least Excel recognizes and accepts it.

Answer 3

I couldn't follow what you were trying to do, but maybe something like this:
Sub test1()
Dim rep As Worksheet
Dim sh1 As Worksheet
Set rep = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("sheet4")
Set sh1 = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet3")
Dim i As Long
Dim count As Integer
Dim arr As Variant
arr = Array("=" & """""", ">=" & sh1.Range("J2"), "<=" & sh1.Range("J3"))
rep.Select
count = Range(Selection, Selection.End(xlToLeft)).Columns.count
For i = 0 To UBound(arr)
rep.Range("$A$4:$GD$11668").AutoFilter Field:=count, Criteria1:=arr(i)
Next i
End Sub