Excel 2K – Formula too long msg

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I work in an environment where we build financial model sets that involve many workbooks. Some of my peers, since installing Office 2K, have been complaining that, when they build a formula that references several external workbooks which are open when the formula is being built, so only the workbook name and cell reference is showing, get a ‘Formula too long’ error message when reopening this workbook later when the linked workbooks are not open (now the fully qualified path is included with the workbook name)and they put the cursor in the formula bar. They seem to think that 255 characters seems to be the limit.

I’m still using Office 97 and know I have lots of workbooks that contain these kinds of formulas that go well over 255 characters.

Is there a difference or limit in Excel 9 that wasn’t in Excel 8.

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It isn’t that the now full pathname is breaking the limit?

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Presumably… The people describing their problem to me are in a different location and I haven’t been able to see this directly. I just did a short test on my own machine, and I have formulas, which I can edit with no trouble, that are over 1000 characters long when the full path names are displayed.

Again, the only difference I can discern so far is that they’re using O2K — I’ve delayed my install of O2K pending completion of a project.

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Edited by GeneO on 01/03/21 23:03.

I did some testing and on my installation of Excel 8 SR-2, the limit seems to be 1024 characters in a Formula.

Can anyone confirm if that’s the case in Excel9?

Post entry edit…
(I found an answer in Q264626 which indicates 1024 is the limit in Excel 2000 also)

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I have experienced the same problem running Excel 97. Try opening all of the linked (or to be linked) files as you are building the formula. That should keep the full path out of the formula until you close the source files.

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