Cell displays formula rather than results of computation
Posted by Bill V on February 03, 2002 12:36 PM
I have a fairly large Excel 2000 spreadsheet which is beginning to act up. The symptom is that when I copy a formula to a new cell, the new cell displays the formula itself rather than the results of computing it. I vaugely recall that there is a known bug/limitation on how many absolute references can exist in a spreadsheet (I have over 5000 cells containing one or more $'s). Is anyone familiar with such a limitation, i.e. what are the specifics and is there a patch or workaround (other than removing all absolute references). Alternately, can anyone suggest what else might be going on here?
Posted by Paul on February 03, 2002 1:59 PM
Are the cells formated as text? (NT)
Posted by Jack in the Uk on February 03, 2002 2:49 PM
Hi Bill--
I can hear the shout now from poster at what im about to say, but Excel is a poor program, not in all but some areas. This is one, there are limits to amounts of formulas that can be active and so absolut ref are simula and i have had agro before, it seems hit and miss on PC spec to version of exel the newer version XP are better then worse on somthing else, its had to say.
My take is get rid of redundant formulas as you will never update them convery to values, pain sure but worth it i guess.
$ $ ref the same get rid of what you can will speed up excel and help all over, excel is only a small program most it help files and graphis and rubbish junk that looks pretty or help th ebasic user undersatnd, im not complaining but we need to know its limits just as this is.
Also UDF kill excel try running 3 or 4 excel will die, target as will distroy excel,,,, XP is slightly better.
Also Windows effect by who the resorce allocate cahe to the program NT or above is better as little kill commaond are require as the re index case ...
HTH
Jack
Posted by Bill V on February 04, 2002 5:01 PM
Re: Are the cells formated as text?
If you mean did I slip in a ' ahead of the formula so that it looked like a text string to Excel, the answer is I did not. The copy operation was a simple copy and paste from a correctly behaving cell and I believe that I examined the misbehaving cell looking for just that. If you're asking did I do something like FORMAT>CELLS>TEXT the answer is also no.
