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Application.CleanString Method

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Word Developer Reference

Removes nonprinting characters (character codes 1 – 29) and special Word characters from the specified string or changes them to spaces (character code 32). Returns the result as a String.

Syntax

expression.CleanString(String)

expression   A variable that represents an Application object. Optional.

Parameters

Name Required/Optional Data Type Description
String Required String The source string.

Remarks

The following characters are converted as described in this table.

Character code Description
7 (beep) Removed unless preceded by character 13 (paragraph), then converted to character 9 (tab).
10 (line feed) Converted to character 13 (paragraph) unless preceded by character 13, then removed.
13 (paragraph) Unchanged.
31 (optional hyphen) Removed.
160 (nonbreaking space) Converted to character 32 (space).
172 (optional hyphen) Removed.
176 (nonbreaking space) Converted to character 32 (space).
182 (paragraph mark) Removed.
183 (bullet) Converted to character 32 (space).

Example

This example removes nonprinting characters from the selected text and inserts the result into a new document.

Visual Basic for Applications 
  Dim strClean As String
Dim docNew As Document

strClean = Application.CleanString(Selection.Text)
Set docNew = Documents.Add
docNew.Content.InsertAfter strClean

This example removes nonprinting characters from the selected field code and then displays the result.

Visual Basic for Applications 
  ActiveDocument.ActiveWindow.View.ShowFieldCodes = True
ActiveDocument.Fields(1).Select
MsgBox Application.CleanString(Selection.Text)

See Also