Mystery with ASCII characters

MartinGM · #1 08-28-2024, 03:34 AM

This is doing my head in ! A have a worksheet whose font is entirely Arial Narrow.

I wanted to create a "block" character in a cell so I went to Symbols and inserted the one I wanted. Then I read it in VBA to see what its ASCII number was - it is character 166 and looks like this: █

But when I use VBA to write character 166 in another cell it shows up as this: ¦

So now I have two cells with the same font and the above two different symbols in them - and when I read their ASCII character numbers using VBA they both show 166.

How can this be ?

PS If I read the value of the █ cell into VBA then write that to the target cell it shows up as █, as it should.

NoSparks · #2 08-28-2024, 05:36 AM

That is ChrW(9608)

Code:

Sub CheckOfCharacters()
    Dim i As Integer, str As String
str = ActiveCell.Value
Debug.Print ActiveCell.Font.Name
For i = 1 To Len(str)
    Debug.Print Mid(str, i, 1) & "  =  " & Asc(Mid(str, i, 1)) & vbLf & _
                Mid(str, i, 1) & "  =  " & AscW(Mid(str, i, 1))
Next
End Sub

MartinGM · #3 08-28-2024, 06:04 AM

Thank you very much

MartinGM · #4 08-28-2024, 06:14 AM

Thank you - that helped.
It turns out that, although the Symbol inserter claimed to be using normal text, it actually stole a few symbols from another font.
Once I changed to font of the target cell all was well.

NoSparks · #5 08-28-2024, 07:02 AM

That was my original thought.
I stepped through each font that my Excel 2010 shows to see what the chr(166) changed to and it never did.
What font are you using?

MartinGM · #6 08-28-2024, 01:54 PM

The workbook was entirely Arial Narrow.
I have found character 105 in the Webdings font which does what I want.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
Open (import) ascii text files	smithurmann	Word	3	10-07-2021 11:02 AM
ASCII or Unicode Latin-based characters without a keypad	jessesgirll	Word	3	05-28-2016 03:46 AM
Naming files in folder, DOS vs Windows Explorer ASCII sequence	equalizer88	Word VBA	2	08-12-2015 03:29 PM
Strange Characters appear when selecting SHOW ALL NON PRINTING CHARACTERS	ann Amber	Word	1	08-01-2015 08:06 PM
Ascii charcter	Jimbir	Word	3	04-12-2015 07:50 PM