Merge Data in Excel Range, Removing Blanks and Duplicates - vba

Question

I have a range of cells in Excel that is more than one column wide and more than one row long. Some of the cells are blank. I would like to merge (using VBA) the non-blank cells into a list, remove the duplicates, and sort alphabetically.
For example, given this input (where a dash designates an empty cell for the purpose of this question):
- - A D -
C - - A -
- - B - D
- - - - -
A - - E -
The following sorted output is produced:
A
B
C
D
E
As the example input shows, some of the rows and columns in the range may contain all empty cells.

Answer 1

Here is one way to do it.
CODE
Option Explicit
Sub Sample()
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim LastRow As Long, lastCol As Long, i as Long
Dim Rng As Range, aCell As Range
Dim MyCol As New Collection
'~~> Change this to the relevant sheet name
Set ws = Sheets("Sheet21")
With ws
LastRow = .Cells.Find(What:="*", After:=.Range("A1"), _
Lookat:=xlPart, LookIn:=xlFormulas, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, MatchCase:=False).Row
lastCol = .Cells.Find(What:="*", After:=.Range("A1"), _
Lookat:=xlPart, LookIn:=xlFormulas, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, MatchCase:=False).Column
Set Rng = .Range("A1:" & Split(.Cells(, lastCol).Address, "$")(1) & LastRow)
'Debug.Print Rng.Address
For Each aCell In Rng
If Not Len(Trim(aCell.Value)) = 0 Then
On Error Resume Next
MyCol.Add aCell.Value, """" & aCell.Value & """"
On Error GoTo 0
End If
Next
.Cells.ClearContents
For i = 1 To MyCol.Count
.Range("A" & i).Value = MyCol.Item(i)
Next i
'~~> OPTIONAL (In Case you want to sort the data)
.Columns(1).Sort Key1:=.Range("A1"), Order1:=xlAscending, Header:=xlGuess, _
OrderCustom:=1, MatchCase:=False, Orientation:=xlTopToBottom, _
DataOption1:=xlSortNormal
End With
End Sub
SNAPSHOTS
FOLLOWUP
I just realized that adding 3 lines more makes this code even faster than the above code.
Option Explicit
Sub Sample()
Dim ws As Worksheet
Dim LastRow As Long, lastCol As Long, i As Long
Dim Rng As Range, aCell As Range, delRange As Range '<~~ Added This
Dim MyCol As New Collection
'~~> Change this to the relevant sheet name
Set ws = Sheets("Sheet1")
With ws
'~~> Get all the blank cells
Set delRange = .Cells.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeBlanks) '<~~ Added This
'~~> Delete the blank cells
If Not delRange Is Nothing Then delRange.Delete '<~~ Added This
LastRow = .Cells.Find(What:="*", After:=.Range("A1"), _
Lookat:=xlPart, LookIn:=xlFormulas, SearchOrder:=xlByRows, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, MatchCase:=False).Row
lastCol = .Cells.Find(What:="*", After:=.Range("A1"), _
Lookat:=xlPart, LookIn:=xlFormulas, SearchOrder:=xlByColumns, _
SearchDirection:=xlPrevious, MatchCase:=False).Column
Set Rng = .Range("A1:" & Split(.Cells(, lastCol).Address, "$")(1) & LastRow)
'Debug.Print Rng.Address
For Each aCell In Rng
If Not Len(Trim(aCell.Value)) = 0 Then
On Error Resume Next
MyCol.Add aCell.Value, """" & aCell.Value & """"
On Error GoTo 0
End If
Next
.Cells.ClearContents
For i = 1 To MyCol.Count
.Range("A" & i).Value = MyCol.Item(i)
Next i
'~~> OPTIONAL (In Case you want to sort the data)
.Columns(1).Sort Key1:=.Range("A1"), Order1:=xlAscending, Header:=xlGuess, _
OrderCustom:=1, MatchCase:=False, Orientation:=xlTopToBottom, _
DataOption1:=xlSortNormal
End With
End Sub