Delimit/text to columns .CSV file before extracting data - vba

Question

I have a code that goes through .xlsx , .xls, and .csv files(many files). But the .csv file data are usually all in column A separated by "|". How can I delimit these files first before looping through them and pulling an extract? It can be complicated because sometimes not only Col A has data but Col B may have a few rows.
EDIT~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sub ColumnHeaders()
'includes filling down
'Skips unreadable files
Dim wb As Workbook, fileNames As Object, errCheck As Boolean
Dim wsReport As Excel.Worksheet
Set wsReport = ActiveWorkbook.Sheets("Sheet1") 'Whatever sheet you want to write to
Dim lRow As Long
lRow = 1
' Turn off screen updating and automatic calculation
With Application
.ScreenUpdating = False
.Calculation = xlCalculationManual
End With
'get user input for files to search
Set fileNames = CreateObject("Scripting.Dictionary")
errCheck = UserInput.FileDialogDictionary(fileNames)
If errCheck Then
Exit Sub
End If
'''
For Each Key In fileNames 'loop through the dictionary
On Error Resume Next
Set wb = Workbooks.Open(fileNames(Key))
If Err.Number <> 0 Then
Set wb = Nothing ' or set a boolean error flag
End If
On Error GoTo 0 ' or your custom error handler
If wb Is Nothing Then
wksSkipped.Cells(wksSkipped.Cells(wksSkipped.Rows.Count, "A").End(xlUp).Row + 1, 1) = fileNames(Key)
Else
Debug.Print "Successfully loaded " & fileNames(Key)
wb.Application.Visible = False 'make it not visible
'--------------------DATA Extraction ----------------------------------------
Dim iIndex As Integer
Dim lCol As Long
Dim lOutputCol As Long
'Loop through the worksheets in the current workbook.
For iIndex = 1 To wb.Worksheets.Count
'Set the current worksheet
Set ws = Application.Worksheets(iIndex)
'List out the workbook and worksheet names
wsReport.Range("A" & lRow).Value = wb.Name
wsReport.Range("B" & lRow).Value = ws.Name
'Start a counter of the columns that we are writing to
lOutputCol = 3
'Loop through the columns.
For lCol = 1 To ws.UsedRange.Columns.Count
'Write the header
wsReport.Range(Col_Letter(lOutputCol) & lRow).Value = ws.Range(Col_Letter(lCol) & "1").Value
'Increment our column counters.
lOutputCol = lOutputCol + 1
Next lCol
'Increment the row we are writing to
lRow = lRow + 1
Next iIndex
'-----------------------Data Extraction END-------------------------------------
wb.Close savechanges:=False 'close the workbook do not save
Set wb = Nothing 'release the object
End If
Next 'End of the fileNames loop
Set fileNames = Nothing
' Reset system settings
With Application
.Calculation = xlCalculationAutomatic
.ScreenUpdating = True
.Visible = True
End With
End Sub

Answer 1

Two possible approaches.
APPROACH #1
Your code first opens the file as text, then prepends (inserts as the first line) to the file this:
sep=|
Next, your code then opens as CSV in Excel. If your text qualifiers are normal quotes, this will work surprisingly well.
I know that prepending is a little tricky in VBA. If the file is not too big, then you would create a new file with that first line followed by the rest of the original file (e.g. http://www.ozgrid.com/forum/showthread.php?t=163510).
The advantage of this approach is that your VBA doesn't need to do text-to-columns, etc.
APPROACH #2
The VBA loops through all rows and columns to clean up first before performing text-to-columns. As you said, if the delimiter is non-standard, you often end up with values in column B or C or even more so you need "clean up" first by putting them all back into column A.
I used to run my own little macro to do this cleaning up for exactly this reason i.e. "|" as a delimiter.
Later, I discovered that I could insert "sep=|" (e.g. using Notepad++) before opening in Excel.
I wrote a short article on both approaches and offered my code here: https://wildwoollytech.wordpress.com/2015/12/11/combine-excel-cells-into-one/