Comments on: Limits

By: Mike Rosenblum

Mike Rosenblum — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:23:00 +0000

Ok, I just ran a quick test. There is no doubt that there is a big savings when formatting the entire column rather than only N rows. It's certainly almost immeasurable with 100 rows, but Excel is efficient about how it applies formatting across an entire Row, Column or Worksheet. In the following, I formatted columns A-H for 100 Rows, 10,000 rows and for the entire column. The resulting file sizes were:

Excel 2003 Excel 2007
------- -------
100 Rows 17K 10K
10000 Rows 489K 227K
Entire Column 14K 8K

So if you are using "relatively invisible" formatting like font characteristics that won't show up unless there is data within the cell, then it's probably easiest to simply format an entire column. If formatting the borders, or back color (aka "fill") or the like, and don't want this shown for empty cells, then I guess you need conditional formatting, VBA, or some of the ideas that are being kicked around in here...

By: Dick Kusleika

Dick Kusleika — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 14:19:00 +0000

This templates usually uses less than 100 rows, but it isn’t the only template in the model. I don’t know if dynamic formatting would add seconds, or merely milliseconds, but it already takes about 30 seconds to run already.

By: Rod Oakley

Rod Oakley — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:32:00 +0000

I have several work books for AP and expenses where I have added a button which after checking for the last row and adding on then check that the row above is not empty it copies the formula and formatting into the new row from that row.and adds one to an index column.
The operators know that when they have used the last indexed row they have to press the button.
copying from above means that if we have changed any of the format's or formula the formula then this will continue

By: fzz

fzz — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:27:00 +0000

Add seconds onto runtime for a model that usually involves only 100 rows?

By: Leeman

Leeman — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 08:22:00 +0000

I would create a formatting procedure, to be activated by a button so that formatting only happens when the user wants it to happen. The number of rows would have to be defined as a variable.

By: Dick Kusleika

Dick Kusleika — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 01:26:00 +0000

JW: I populate the worksheet via VBA, so it doesn't extend formatting and formulas automatically. I don't do the formatting in VBA because it's already a pretty slow process and I can't add seconds onto the running time.

Mike: I've heard that too, but I've been unable to prove it using the file size that windows reports.

By: fzz

fzz — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:58:00 +0000

Use a hidden defined name like FormattedUsedRange to store the text address of the worksheet's UsedRange the last time formatting had been updated. Then have BeforeSave and BeforePring event handlers check that range against the worksheet's current UsedRange. If the former is larger, extend the conditional formatting (paste-special-format should work) and update FormattedUsedRange.

Re Roger Govier's suggestion, hidden rows/columns in otherwise visible worksheets tend to cause more problems than they solve. Better to use very hidden worksheets to store special formatting templates in ranges with hidden names specific to the hidden worksheets.

By: bubba

bubba — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:07:00 +0000

a, “copy” then “paste formats” its only 200 rows for cripes sake….

By: Mike Rosenblum

Mike Rosenblum — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 19:01:00 +0000

I had thought that Excel is efficient about checking the default formatting for the Worksheet first, then for the Row &/or Column formatting, and then for the individual cell...

So you should be able to format an entire column, using up less memory than attempting to format only 100 rows of that column. (I could be mistaken about this, but I thought that this was right.)

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 14:49:00 +0000

The problem with lists is that people don’t know what they are or how to use them. Rather than try to learn, they just freak out. Also, enough folks are still on 2000 & 2002 to make lists not a universal solution.