Excel clear cells based on contents of a list in another sheet

Question

I have an excel Sheet1 of a thousand of rows and 20 columns from A1 to T1. Each cell in that range has some data in it, usually one or two words. In Sheet2, A1 column I have

Answer 1

Here is another method using an array by minimizing the traffic between sheet (iteration via range/cells) and code. This code doesn't use any clear contents. Simply take the whole range into an array, clean it up and input what you need :) with a click of a button.

• edited as per OP's request: adding comments and changing the code for his desired sheets.

Code:

Option Explicit

Sub matchAndClear()
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim arrKeys As Variant, arrData As Variant
    Dim i As Integer, j As Integer, k As Integer

    '-- here we take keys column from Sheet 1 into a 1D array
    arrKeys = WorksheetFunction.Transpose(Sheets(1).Range("A2:A11").Value)
    '-- here we take to be cleaned-up-range from Sheet 2 into a 2D array
    arrData = WorksheetFunction.Transpose(Sheets(2).Range("C2:D6").Value)

    '-- here we iterate through each key in keys array searching it in 
    '-- to-be-cleaned-up array
    For i = LBound(arrKeys) To UBound(arrKeys)
        For j = LBound(arrData, 2) To UBound(arrData, 2)
                '-- when there's a match we clear up that element
                If UCase(Trim(arrData(1, j))) = UCase(Trim(arrKeys(i))) Then
                    arrData(1, j) = " "
                End If
                '-- when there's a match we clear up that element
                If UCase(Trim(arrData(2, j))) = UCase(Trim(arrKeys(i))) Then
                    arrData(2, j) = " "
                End If
        Next j
    Next i

    '-- replace old data with new data in the sheet 2 :)
    Sheets(2).Range("C2").Offset(0, 0).Resize(UBound(arrData, 2), _
    UBound(arrData)) = Application.Transpose(arrData)

End Sub

• Please not that you what you really need to set here are the ranges:

  1. Keys range
  2. To-Be-Cleaned up range

Output: (for displaying purpose I am using the same sheet, but you can change the sheet names as you desire.

Edit based on OP's request for running OP's file:

The reason that it didn't clean all your columns is that in the above sample is only cleaning two columns where as you have 16 columns. So you need to add another for loop to iterate through it. Not much performance down, but a little ;) Following is a screenshot after running your the sheet you sent. There is nothing to change except that.

Code:

'-- here we iterate through each key in keys array searching it in
    '-- to-be-cleaned-up array
    For i = LBound(arrKeys) To UBound(arrKeys)
        For j = LBound(arrData, 2) To UBound(arrData, 2)
            For k = LBound(arrData) To UBound(arrData)
                '-- when there's a match we clear up that element
                If UCase(Trim(arrData(k, j))) = UCase(Trim(arrKeys(i))) Then
                    arrData(k, j) = " "
                End If
            Next k
        Next j
    Next i