The interesting thing with the _Default property is that it takes two optional arguments, RowIndex and ColumnIndex and returns another Range object, using the Item property. However, if you don’t pass in any parameters, it returns the value of the range instead.

Hence the seemingly confusing behaviour.

Now where it really does get confusing is when you consider the Columns(), Cells() and Rows() properties.

Ever wondered why the Count property returns the number of columns of a range which was obtained from the Columns property? After all, in a regular range, Count returns the number of cells.

The answer is that each Range object contains an internal flag which specifies if it’s a cells range, a columns range or a rows range. The behaviour of Count, Item and For-Each are then modified appropriately. Clever, really.

Another interesting point, which follows on from this, is that Cells, Columns and Rows don’t actually take arguments. Instead, they just return fresh Range objects and any arguments are then passed on to the new range’s _Default property.

For example, I often find myself specifying a one-cell Range to indicate the top-left cell of an arbitrarily large output table. If I want to fill the table as I go, I can use

targetRange.Cells(row, column)

, which I find is more intention-revealing than

targetRange.Offset(offsetRows, offsetColumns)

My £0.02p…

when range = “a1? item 2 is a2,

and when range (“a1:b90?) item 3 is a2

so the range effects the rows, limts the number of rows in a “range”, but not the number of colums….? hummm

That’s because Item(2) is B1 and Item(3) is C1 – left to right before top to bottom. 70,000 / 3 = 23333 1/3. Item(69,999) would be C23333, and one more goes to A of the next row.

?range(“a1?).Item(70000).address
gives app error

?range(“a1:b1?).Item(70000).address
gives $B$35000 ????

and wiredest of all
?range(“a1:c1?).Item(70000).address
$A$23334!!!

it contiues, for example…
?range(“a1:g1?).Item(120000).address
$F$17143

I was expecting something like
(70000-65536 = 4464)
?range(“a1:b1?).Item(70000).address
gives $B$4464 ????

odd!