remove whitespace or tabs

Then try

'Your code
For x = LBound(myArray) To UBound(myArray)
    myArray(x) = CleanAll("a" & myArray(x))
Next
' Your code

Add this function somewhere outside above procedure.

Function CleanAll(ByVal txt As String) As String
    With CreateObject("VBScript.RegExp")
        .Global = True
        .Pattern = "[\n\t\v\f\s]+"
        CleanAll = .Replace(txt, "")
    End With
End Function