Limits of excel

[adriaSTEFANIE]

Hello,
does anybody know whether excel has a maximum filesize or are there any
limitations in the number of lines and rows or anything else?
Which are the critical points of a sheet?
Over the years our address database has grown up to nearly 5000 inputs and
as excel is not the optimal software for this issue we are afraid of
problems. (Excel 97)

[Harald Staff]

Hi

The physical limitation for a single worksheet is 2^8 * 2^16 , which is 256
columns * 65536 rows. The rest is just depending on what the worksheets do.
Heavy calculations, like huge lookup functions, eat time and memory.
Graphics and formatting eat file size and, after a while, performance.

You have 5000 rows of passive data (not calculations). That not much, you
should not face problems for a long time.

But Excel may not be the most practical application for an address database.
That is another consideration, the answer to it depends on what it is used
for and how / from where it should be accessed. A standard answer is "Use
Access, Access is built for those things", and yes it is. But if you have
none or too few Access licenses and no skilled Office developers at hand
then it's still not a very practical solution.

HTH. Best wishes Harald

"adriaSTEFANIE" <[email protected]> skrev i melding
news:[email protected]...
> Hello,
> does anybody know whether excel has a maximum filesize or are there any
> limitations in the number of lines and rows or anything else?
> Which are the critical points of a sheet?
> Over the years our address database has grown up to nearly 5000 inputs and
> as excel is not the optimal software for this issue we are afraid of
> problems. (Excel 97)
>

[Jerry W. Lewis]

Documented in Help for "Excel specifications and limits"

Jerry

adriaSTEFANIE wrote:

> Hello,
> does anybody know whether excel has a maximum filesize or are there any
> limitations in the number of lines and rows or anything else?
> Which are the critical points of a sheet?
> Over the years our address database has grown up to nearly 5000 inputs and
> as excel is not the optimal software for this issue we are afraid of
> problems. (Excel 97)

[adriaSTEFANIE]

Thanks,

Stefanie

"Jerry W. Lewis" wrote:

> Documented in Help for "Excel specifications and limits"
>
> Jerry
>
> adriaSTEFANIE wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> > does anybody know whether excel has a maximum filesize or are there any
> > limitations in the number of lines and rows or anything else?
> > Which are the critical points of a sheet?
> > Over the years our address database has grown up to nearly 5000 inputs and
> > as excel is not the optimal software for this issue we are afraid of
> > problems. (Excel 97)
>
>

[adriaSTEFANIE]

Dear Harald,

Thank you very much for the detailled answer, which is very helpful. We are
already thinking about a change to Access.

Kind regards,
Stefanie

"Harald Staff" wrote:

> Hi
>
> The physical limitation for a single worksheet is 2^8 * 2^16 , which is 256
> columns * 65536 rows. The rest is just depending on what the worksheets do.
> Heavy calculations, like huge lookup functions, eat time and memory.
> Graphics and formatting eat file size and, after a while, performance.
>
> You have 5000 rows of passive data (not calculations). That not much, you
> should not face problems for a long time.
>
> But Excel may not be the most practical application for an address database.
> That is another consideration, the answer to it depends on what it is used
> for and how / from where it should be accessed. A standard answer is "Use
> Access, Access is built for those things", and yes it is. But if you have
> none or too few Access licenses and no skilled Office developers at hand
> then it's still not a very practical solution.
>
> HTH. Best wishes Harald
>
> "adriaSTEFANIE" <[email protected]> skrev i melding
> news:[email protected]...
> > Hello,
> > does anybody know whether excel has a maximum filesize or are there any
> > limitations in the number of lines and rows or anything else?
> > Which are the critical points of a sheet?
> > Over the years our address database has grown up to nearly 5000 inputs and
> > as excel is not the optimal software for this issue we are afraid of
> > problems. (Excel 97)
> >
>
>
>