What are these blocks, can't remove them

[DMT Dave]

Hi Guy's hoping you can help with this

the snip is a debug, when getting data from a text box

Salutation (ct)
First Name (fn)
Last Name(ln)

I am trying allsorts to remove these blocks such as Replace / LTrim strings

I have never seen this before!!, i have searched a few places and know you great people will know what these little blocks are ?

Dim ct() As String, sct As String, ict As Integer            
             ct = Split(strMailMessage, vbCrLf)
                For ict = 0 To UBound(ct)
                    If InStr(1, ct(ict), "Salutation:") > 0 Then
                        sct = Mid(ct(ict + 2), 1) & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
                    Exit For
                    End If
                Next ict
            sct = LTrim(sct)
            sct = Replace(sct, Chr(13) & Chr(10), "")
            Me.txtName = LTrim(sct)
            
            Dim fn() As String, sfn As String, ifn As Integer
            fn = Split(strMailMessage, vbCrLf)
                For ifn = 0 To UBound(fn)
                    If InStr(1, fn(ifn), "First Name:") > 0 Then
                        sfn = Mid(fn(ifn + 2), 1) & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
                    End If
                Next ifn
            sfn = LTrim(sfn)
            sfn = Replace(sfn, Chr(13) & Chr(10), "")
            
            Dim ln() As String, sln As String, strFN As String, iln As Integer
            ln = Split(strMailMessage, vbCrLf)
                For iln = 0 To UBound(ln)
                    If InStr(1, ln(iln), "Last Name:") > 0 Then
                        sln = Mid(ln(iln + 2), 1) & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
                    Exit For
                    End If
                Next iln
            sln = LTrim(sln)
            Me.txtName = ""
            Me.txtName = sct & " " & sfn & " " & sln
            Me.txtName = Replace(Replace(Me.txtName, Chr(13) & Chr(10), ""), Chr(8), LTrim(Me.txtName))

[Minty]

Examine the string in something like Notepad ++ , turn on the view symbol option.
That should tell you what character they really are, and allow you to do something about them.

[CJ_London]

or loop through the string to determine the ascii code

dim i as integer

for i=1 to len(str)
    debug.print asc(mid(str,i,1)); ' mid(str,i,1) if you want to see the character, note some non printing characters, such as line feeds may split line
next i

[DMT Dave]

@ Minty, will look up about Notepad ++, never used before nor know what it is but will look up

@CJ London, yes because if i am reading your suggestion correctly, once I find the Chr code of this block, i guess then replace/Trim function ?

Thank you anyway, totally appreciate your input, will come back to it a little later

[Welshgasman]

Will not be the Trim() function, just the Replace().

[DMT Dave]

Hi Guy's thank you, so based on CJ London Suggestion

Based on this part of code

            For i = 1 To Len(Me.txtName)                
               Debug.Print Asc((Mid(Me.txtName, i, 1)))
            Next i

Debug

77  114 
 9 
 32 
 68 
 97 
 118 
 105 
 100 
 9 
 32 
 77 
 111 
 115 
 101 
 115 
 9

Does this mean i need to replace these numbers In the String or Text Box ?

[CJ_London]

the string

replace(str,chr(num),"")

replace num with whatever

this is a link to ascii codes
https://www.ascii-code.com/

the number relates to the DEC column so 77 is the letter M, 32 the space character, 9, the horizontal tab, etc

[moke123]

I use the same as CJ but print the character and the ascii value.

Sub FindNonPrintables(StrIN As String)
    Dim i As Integer


    For i = 1 To Len(StrIN)
        Debug.Print Mid(StrIN, i, 1), Asc(Mid(StrIN, i, 1))
    Next i


End Sub

In looking through the ascii tables I don't see anything resembling a square. I'm curious what its value is.

I also tried

    Dim i As Integer
    For i = 1 To 255
        Debug.Print Chr(i)
    Next

but again nothing resembling a square.

[DMT Dave]

Hi guys the penny has dropped, I believe each number is the charchter within the string, text box, so is it a matter of counting where the blocks shouldn't be and that gives me the chr number to remove ?

[ArviLaanemets]

Probably you have got strings containing some unicode characters from somewhere - most probably by copying and inserting some data from internet. For some languages (e.g. chinese, or arabian languages) those are only characters used, for some other (like languages using cyrillic schrift, or some european languages using characters not present in main ASCII table) it may be mixed up. And there may be several characters which have different unicode values, but look identical or almost same, as some character from regular latin alfabet (so when you compare strings which look same, they really may be different).
Also, some schrifts used by some websites can be based on unicode characters.

You get a box (or some other shape) displayed instead of character, when language or font, your OP-system is using, is not able to display it properly.

[CJ_London]

I use the same as CJ but print the character and the ascii value.

I did provide the code, but Dave chose not to use it

In looking through the ascii tables I don't see anything resembling a square. I'm curious what its value is.

It just means the character cannot be displayed - almost certainly the horizontal tab character in this case

[orange]

FYI -Crystal/strive4peace has a function to display a string and the ASCII code for each character in the string. Handy for debugging or reference.

[moke123]

I did provide the code, but Dave chose not to use it
It just means the character cannot be displayed - almost certainly the horizontal tab character in this case

Yea, I saw you had it commented out.

Hi guys the penny has dropped, I believe each number is the charchter within the string, text box, so is it a matter of counting where the blocks shouldn't be and that gives me the chr number to remove ?

If you used Cj's or my code you would get

H              72 
e              101 
l              108 
l              108 
o              111 
               32 
W              87 
o              111 
r              114 
l              108 
d              100

much easier to spot.

[DMT Dave]

Hi guys thank you

@ArviLaanemets

Yes correct, we have changed web host, i am taking enquiries from HubSpot, the new emails come through on a form where is used to be a mail body, data is transferred to text box then split as per initial post

all of your posts are very handy for me to analyse

[DMT Dave]

Hi CJ London, i have just seen your code now, sorry i have been sporadically coming back to this topic!!

your code on post 7 should clear spaces in string, is that I tried by using Replace(String,Chr(13) & Chr(10), "") ?

Please forgive me if i have mis-read your code