How many records can Excel sort without crashing

**blandow** · 10-03-2009, 04:53 PM

I have a column of data that is an 850,000+ list of phone numbers. I need to peridoically insert another 10,000+ at a time and see if there are duplicates. Using conditional formatting to highlight the duplicates with a colored cell, and then sorting those records to the top is what I want to do, but it's too much for Excel to handle, and it hangs. It looks like I need to break up the 850k records into smaller chunks. Anyone know what an average pc with Excel 07 can handle? It's a 2.8ghz w/2gb ram.

Thanks in advance

**oldchippy** · 10-03-2009, 05:03 PM

Hi,

Does this offer any help?

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ex...738491033.aspx

**shg** · 10-03-2009, 05:07 PM

I just sorted 850K random phone numbers in about 5 seconds.

I'd take out the CF. It's a very expensive way to find duplicates.

**blandow** · 10-03-2009, 05:11 PM

what pc specs?

**shg** · 10-03-2009, 05:12 PM

My old and trusty Dell laptop with 1GB RAM.

**blandow** · 10-03-2009, 05:15 PM

I've tried it on multiple computers and get the same thing. I use conditional formatting to color the duplicates, but when I do a custom sort by cell color, it hangs. The large list is from a text file, and the other records are from another Excel sheet. I wonder if it's a formatting issue. I set it all to General.