Excel 2000 STILL hangs on sort

[Jim Cobban]

I still cannot understand why I am the only person on this whole planet who
seems to have problems sorting Excel spreadsheets. I simply cannot imagine
what it is about my system that is unique.

As I have repeatedly griped without getting any useful response:

1) I cannot sort any spreadsheet where the data contains a question mark
2) I cannot sort moderate spreadsheets (>2500 rows) where the data
includes the results of a subtraction.

The bypass for the first problem is to remove all question marks (by
searching for '~?'). The bypass for the second problem is to copy the
column containing the results of the subtraction and then paste values back
over it.

I presume that what is happening in both cases is that Excel is going into
an infinite loop because the ONLY way out is to give Excel the
3-finger-salute, and even then I must wait several seconds, which indicates
to me that Excel is in a state where it never asks for a system function.

Since nobody else on the planet is able to reproduce these problems, even
though they are absolutely 100% reproducible on my system, I cannot get
Microsoft to admit that there is a bug in their code. Until Microsoft
admits that they have a couple of bugs and have fixed them in a future
release I am not going to waste my money paying for such a release.

--
Jim Cobban (e-mail address removed)
34 Palomino Dr.
Kanata, ON, CANADA
K2M 1M1
+1-613-592-9438

 

[Lady Layla]

As someone who does what you do on a regular basis with no problem, I will
concur with the others that it is not a problem with the code within excel but
rather with the structure of your file or your system

What OS, processor and RAM do you have?

How big are the spreadsheets you are attempting to sort? How complex are they?
Where do they reside? (Client/Server)
What AV are you using?
The subtraction formulas you are using -- are they subtractions within the same
row or are the subtractions based on other rows that are also being sorted?





: I still cannot understand why I am the only person on this whole planet who
: seems to have problems sorting Excel spreadsheets. I simply cannot imagine
: what it is about my system that is unique.
:
: As I have repeatedly griped without getting any useful response:
:
: 1) I cannot sort any spreadsheet where the data contains a question mark
: 2) I cannot sort moderate spreadsheets (>2500 rows) where the data
: includes the results of a subtraction.
:
: The bypass for the first problem is to remove all question marks (by
: searching for '~?'). The bypass for the second problem is to copy the
: column containing the results of the subtraction and then paste values back
: over it.
:
: I presume that what is happening in both cases is that Excel is going into
: an infinite loop because the ONLY way out is to give Excel the
: 3-finger-salute, and even then I must wait several seconds, which indicates
: to me that Excel is in a state where it never asks for a system function.
:
: Since nobody else on the planet is able to reproduce these problems, even
: though they are absolutely 100% reproducible on my system, I cannot get
: Microsoft to admit that there is a bug in their code. Until Microsoft
: admits that they have a couple of bugs and have fixed them in a future
: release I am not going to waste my money paying for such a release.
:
: --
: Jim Cobban (e-mail address removed)
: 34 Palomino Dr.
: Kanata, ON, CANADA
: K2M 1M1
: +1-613-592-9438
:
:

 

[Jim Cobban]

As someone who does what you do on a regular basis with no problem, I will
concur with the others that it is not a problem with the code within excel but
rather with the structure of your file or your system

It is not as if I was pointing Excel at some random file created by another
application. The files in question were created by the very copy of Excel
that seems incapable of sorting them.

What OS, processor and RAM do you have?

I am running Windows 98 Second edition on a 450MHz AMD K6 processor with
128MB of RAM.

How big are the spreadsheets you are attempting to sort? How complex are

they?

I feel that my statement of the problem in my posting covers this. I said
that the first problem happens with "any" spreadsheet. I mean that in the
most literal sense. Please appreciate how frustrated I feel at my problem
being rejected for all of these years, and therefore how, from my point of
view, by asking this question after reading my post you are in effect
questioning my honesty.

For the sort problem with the question mark even if there are only TWO lines
and TWO columns in the spreadsheet the sort hangs. I am NOT kidding. For
the problem sorting the results of a subtraction the problem is size
dependent, as I said in my posting, but the size at which the problem
occurs, about 2500
lines, is, I think you will agree, quite modest. The spreadsheets have no
complexity. For the case with the subtraction the spreadsheets only have 6
columns. If the spreadsheets do not have either of the characteristics they
sort almost instantly, so as far as size goes Excel clearly does not
consider them
either large or complex.

Where do they reside? (Client/Server)

The spreadsheets are on the hard-drive of my PC. As I said Excel is
apparently going into a hard loop. Therefore where the data originally was
located seems completely irrelevant to me.

What AV are you using?

I do not know what an AV is. I cannot find "AV" described in the Excel
help. When I do a search for "Excel AV" on groups.google.com I only
encounter "av" as a word in postings in Swedish.

The subtraction formulas you are using -- are they subtractions within the same
row or are the subtractions based on other rows that are also being

sorted?

The subtractions are within the same row. I am just subtracting the age of
a person at the time of an event from the year of the event to determine the
year of birth. I want to sort the individuals on the year of birth.

The problems happen every time I try to sort a spreadsheet with either of
the conditions. They are therefore perfectly repeatable on my system, but
all I get from anybody else, including Microsoft support, is that they
cannot reproduce the problem. So I am left with no solution to my problem.

By the way these are not the only spreadsheets that I cannot get Excel 2000
to sort, just the only ones where I have figured out what I have to change
in the spreadsheets in order to get them sorted. For the rest I just curse,
give Excel the 3-finger salute, and try to find another way of sorting the
data. If it wasn't that Excel is, aside from this annoyance, a generally
superior product I would have thrown it out and demanded my money back a
long time ago.

I hope you can appreciate that it is intensely frustrating to be told that
you are the only person on this whole planet who is having any trouble with
this when it happens to you all the time, and has continued to do so for
several years.

As I said I am not prepared to spend my money upgrading to a newer release
when I have no guarantee that this problem is fixed there. The only
proof I feel I can reasonably accept is a statement from Microsoft that they
know what is causing the problem and have changed the offending code either
in a fix package or in a subsequent release. Since MS refuses to accept
that I am even having a problem I am really caught in a quandary. I am sick
and tired of having to open these spreadsheets in that clearly inferior
product Quattro Pro just to sort them.