Excel VBA - Date Format Conversion

Question

I have come across a challenging task which I am not able to solve using many workarounds.

In one column I have dates, the date can be in following three formats:

1) Simple dd/mm/yy

2) dd/mm/yy but may have words "before,after or about" around it. Any one of it and we just need to delete those words in this case.

3) Date in a numeric format. A long decimal values like 1382923.2323 but actually I can get a date from it after conversion.

The file is uploaded here. Date_format_macro_link

I wrote the following code but it's giving wrong results.

Sub FormatDates_Mine()
    ManualSheet.Activate
    ManualSheet.Cells.Hyperlinks.Delete
    ManualSheet.Cells.Interior.ColorIndex = xlNone
    ManualSheet.Cells.Font.Color = RGB(0, 0, 0)

    lastRow = ManualSheet.Range("A" & Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row
    Col = "A"
    For i = 2 To lastRow
        Cells(i, Col) = Trim(Replace(Cells(i, Col), vbLf, "", 1, , vbTextCompare))

        If InStr(1, Cells(i, Col), "about", vbTextCompare) <> 0 Then
            Cells(i, Col) = Trim(Replace(Cells(i, Col), "about", "", 1, , vbTextCompare))
            Cells(i, Col).Interior.Color = RGB(217, 151, 149)
        End If

        If InStr(1, Cells(i, Col), "after", vbTextCompare) <> 0 Then
            Cells(i, Col) = Trim(Replace(Cells(i, Col), "after", "", 1, , vbTextCompare))
            Cells(i, Col).Interior.Color = RGB(228, 109, 10)
        End If

        If InStr(1, Cells(i, Col), "before", vbTextCompare) <> 0 Then
            Cells(i, Col) = Trim(Replace(Cells(i, Col), "before", "", 1, , vbTextCompare))
            Cells(i, Col).Interior.Color = RGB(228, 109, 10)
        End If

        DateParts = Split(Cells(i, Col), "/", , vbTextCompare)

        Cells(i, Col) = Format(Cells(i, Col), "dd/mm/yyyy")
    Next i

    Range("D:E").HorizontalAlignment = xlCenter
End Sub

The file is uploaded here. Date_format_macro_link

Please help!

Answer 1

Is this what you are trying? I have not added any error handling. I am assuming that you will not be deviating for the existing format of your data. If the format changes then you WILL have to introduce error handling.

Option Explicit

Sub Sample()
    Dim ws As Worksheet
    Dim lRow As Long, i As Long
    Dim rng As Range
    Dim MyAr() As String

    Set ws = ThisWorkbook.Sheets("Data")

    With ws
        lRow = .Range("A" & .Rows.Count).End(xlUp).Row

        Set rng = .Range("A2:A" & lRow)

        With rng
            '~~> Replace "After " in the entire column
            .Replace What:="After ", Replacement:="", LookAt:=xlPart, _
            SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
            ReplaceFormat:=False

            DoEvents

            '~~> Replace "About " in the entire column
            .Replace What:="About ", Replacement:="", LookAt:=xlPart, _
            SearchOrder:=xlByRows, MatchCase:=False, SearchFormat:=False, _
            ReplaceFormat:=False

            .NumberFormat = "dd/mm/yyyy"
        End With

        For i = 2 To lRow
            '~~> Remove the End Spaces
            .Range("A" & i).Value = Sid_SpecialAlt160(.Range("A" & i).Value)

            '~~> Remove time after the space
            If InStr(1, .Range("A" & i).Value, " ") Then _
            .Range("A" & i).Formula = Split(.Range("A" & i).Value, " ")(0)

            '~~> Convert date like text  to date
            .Range("A" & i).Formula = DateSerial(Split(.Range("A" & i).Value, "/")(2), _
                                                 Split(.Range("A" & i).Value, "/")(1), _
                                                 Split(.Range("A" & i).Value, "/")(0))
        Next i

    End With
End Sub

Public Function Sid_SpecialAlt160(s As String)
    Dim counter As Long

    If Len(s) > 0 Then
        counter = Len(s)
        While VBA.Mid(s, counter, 1) = " "
            counter = counter - 1
        Wend
        Sid_SpecialAlt160 = VBA.Mid(s, 1, counter)
    Else
        Sid_SpecialAlt160 = s
    End If
End Function

Screenshot