title: Getting questionmark characters (?) when reading file line by line into worksheet
body: <p><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/3HurK.png" alt="alt text"></p>
  
  <p>I am reading a text file line by line with VBA into a worksheet. it's often returning these characters. Does anyone know how to remove them?</p>
  
  <p>this is how i am reading it:</p>
  
  <pre><code>Sub ReadAsciiFile()
  
      Dim sFileName As String
      Dim iFileNum As Integer
      Dim sBuf As String
      Dim i As Integer
      i = 1
  
      ' edit this:
      sFileName = "usmap.txt"
  
      ' does the file exist?  simpleminded test:
      If Len(Dir$(sFileName)) = 0 Then
          Exit Sub
      End If
  
      iFileNum = FreeFile()
      Open sFileName For Input As iFileNum
  
      Do While Not EOF(iFileNum)
          Line Input #iFileNum, sBuf
          ' now you have the next line of the file in sBuf
          ' do something useful:
          activesheet.Cells(i, 1) = sBuf
          i = i + 1
          Debug.Print sBuf
      Loop
  
      ' close the file
      Close iFileNum
  
  End Sub
  </code></pre>