Macros Written Into Spreadsheet as Text in Strage Language

[incjourn]

Has anyone seen anything like this before? I am confused as to how these macros work and what script they are written in. Is there a Pseudo code hidden somewhere in the worksheet or hidden references?

++ One of the formula categories is 'DDE/External' so I am guessing it is some DDE thing but I have no idea how it know to at the spreadsheet for the code.

The code is written as lines in a worksheet and the functions appear as custom formulae. The VBE is not password protected and there are no Macros in it anyway. The only references the file appears to be using are the 'visual basic for applications' and 'Microsoft 11.0 Object Library' which are standard references for the workbook I believe. I was not required to install any dlls to get the spreadsheet working.

A worksheet called 'Macros' contains the following.
Run(OpenDataFiles)

OpenDataFiles
=MESSAGE(TRUE,"Opening data files.....")
=ERROR(TRUE,CloseOnError1)
SourceFileStatus="Closed"
Filename=OFFSET(Marker1,rowoffset,0)
Sheetname=OFFSET(Marker1,rowoffset,1)
=IF(OR(Filename="",Sheetname=""))
= ALERT("Please define filename")
= ACTIVATE(TempSheet)
= FILE.CLOSE(FALSE)
= HALT()

N.B. The above is just a small extract, and I can't attach the spreadsheet due to confidentiality issues.

Any clues as to what, why and how?

[incjourn]

Any guidance would be appreciated.

[snb]

I think that's the way macro's were written in Excel before version 98.

[MrShorty]

Any chance they are originally from another spreadsheet program? It's been a while, and I was never as proficient in Quattro Pro as I am in Excel, but it seems like that was how Quattro Pro did macros - as commands typed directly into a spreadsheet like you are describing. I don't know about the other spreadsheet programs, but maybe what you are seeing is the macro language of another spreadsheet program.

How old is the spreadsheet? I don't remember very much from Excel 4.0, but it seems that the first version of Excel that used VBA as the macro language was 5.0. Is the spreadsheet old enough to originally have been written in pre-5.0 Excel?

[incjourn]

Confirmed that this is visual basic macros for very old version of excel. Macros are entered on 'Macros' sheet and defined by named ranges.

[romperstomper]

Those are not Visual Basic macros. They are, as snb said, the old XLM macro functions that predated VBA.