Why Doesn't VBA replace function work with CRLF in Word and Excel

Question

I could have sworn I have stripped CRLF in the past but not sure why the following isn't working:

myString = "ABC" & vbCrLf & "DEF"
str1 = Replace(myString, vbLf, "")
str2 = Replace(str1, vbCrLf, "")
str3 = Replace(str2, vbNewLine, "") 
MsgBox str3

The code above doesn't work the result is:

ABC
DEF

---

myString = "ABC" & vbCrLf & "DEF"
str1 = Replace(myString, Chr(13), "")
str2 = Replace(str1, Chr(10), "")
MsgBox str2

The code above does work the result is:

ABCDEF

Solution: Thanks @ Mat for the answer (The problem on the first code was the order I was trying to remove the items) VbCrLf & VbNewLine is the same and trying to remove the combo vbCr+VbLf after removing VbLf won't work

Answer 1

The premise is flawed:

myString = "ABC" & vbCrLf & "DEF"

The string is made of "ABC", vbCrLf, and "DEF".

vbCrLf is vbCr and vbLf, which on any Windows box is vbNewLine.

When you do:

str1 = Replace(myString, vbLf, "")

You replace vbLf and leave the vbCr character in place.

str2 = Replace(str1, vbCrLf, "")

Then you replace vbCrLf but vbLf is already gone so vbCrLf isn't in the string.

str3 = Replace(str2, vbNewLine, "") 

Then you replace vbNewLine which is basically doing the exact same thing as the previous instruction, and the result is a string that's been stripped of vbLf but still contains vbCr.

This code works as expected:

Sub Test()
    Dim foo As String
    foo = "foo" & vbCrLf & "bar"
    Debug.Print foo
    foo = Replace(foo, vbNewLine, vbNullString)
    Debug.Print foo
End Sub

As does this:

Sub Test()
    Dim foo As String
    foo = "foo" & vbNewLine & "bar"
    Debug.Print foo
    foo = Replace(foo, vbNewLine, vbNullString)
    Debug.Print foo
End Sub

Or this:

Sub Test()
    Dim foo As String
    foo = "foo" & vbNewLine & "bar"
    Debug.Print foo
    foo = Replace(foo, vbCrLf, vbNullString)
    Debug.Print foo
End Sub

Or even this:

Sub Test()
    Dim foo As String
    foo = "foo" & vbNewLine & "bar"
    Debug.Print foo
    foo = Replace(foo, vbCr, vbNullString)
    foo = Replace(foo, vbLf, vbNullString)
    Debug.Print foo
End Sub

---

Your second snippet works as intended, because you do remove both vbCr (Chr(13)) and vbLf (Chr(10)) characters. Simple as that.