Curious range naming problem

[FDibbins]

I have 9 ranges that I want to give range names to, they represent specific areas, and everyone knows them by these 2-character abreviations - and they are also table headings, so changing them is not an option.

here they are...
N1
N2
S1
S2
GW
GE
W2
E2
C2

Now, for all but the last 1 (C2), I can give them names with the 2 characters and a trailing underscore (N1_, E2_, W2_, S2_ etc)...great. The last 1 (C2) if I try to name it C2_, I get an error saying the name is invalid. All the others work - adding an underscore at teh end so it does not look like a cell ref - why wont that 1?

edit: It wont even let me add any text after C2 at all

[MarvinP]

Hey Ford,

Are you looking at all these named ranges in the Names Manager? Are they all worksheet or workbook ranges? Is "C2_" being the 9th range important? Can you delete a previous name and then add it? How does the cell C2 differ from the range name C2? How about giving us a sample workbook with the problem in it?

[FDibbins]

There were no names, until I made them. I have dummied up the file and removed stuff not relevant - problem is on sheet2.

But try for yourself on a brand new sheet - dummy up a table and try and call it E2_ then try and call it C2_

It seemsx that there is something "special" about the tern C2

[MarvinP]

Hey,

Doing some research (search engine on the net) it looks like you need to use a "valid range name" and the conflict is with the R1C2 type of address convention. See if R2 give the same error message. See:
http://www.excelforum.com/excel-gene...n-the-nam.html that leads to
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/DefinedNames.aspx

[FDibbins]

OK, I figured it was some restricted letter/number sequence - and no, it wont accept R2:R10 or even R100, either

Thanks for checking this for me. the S1, C2 etc are codes that get applied to rows in a list, I intend to use them with INDIRECT to reference the different ranges

hmm although, I may still be able to just use INDEX/MATCH for this - wasnt thinking straight

[peterrc]

Hi Ford,
I don't know if this will help but it works if you use C_2 insted of C2_
Regards
peterrc