JC,
Why go to Google to get perhaps the wrong answer, when the
authoratiative info is already available for you in Excel? The article
in "Help" entitled "Excel specifications and limits", pointed out by
Bob, says, amongst other things, as shown below.
You question
I can always add more RAM if I hit a limit I suppose. I was hoping for an
indication of what the limit may be before I actually hit it or maybe a point at
which the spreadsheet is so large that it becomes too slow and
unwieldy to use.
That's a different issue. Depends on how fast your disk is, memory, and
your patience. Excel has to load the entire file (as far as I know) and
if it doesn't fit, will cache to disk (I think).
My experience is that Excel files become unmanageable from a people
perspective well before the computer can't handle them. Large/huge
files suggest great complexity is which very hard to manage when files
get large and is normally an indication of misapplication of Excel and
perhaps you should be considering an alternative solution architecture
to your model if performance is an issue.
For example, if the application is so large because you have data in the
spreadsheet ... put the data in a database instead ... and maybe the
entire application in a database. If the application is so large
because the computations are complex, then maybe you need to re-pro
gramme it in a real programming language (FORTRAN, C, Python, or
something else which is much easier to keep track of complexity).
From Help:
Feature Maximum limit
Open workbooks Limited by available memory and system resources
Worksheet size 65,536 rows by 256 columns
Column width 255 characters
Row height 409 points
Page breaks 1000 horizontal and vertical
Length of cell contents (text) 32,767 characters. Only 1,024 display in
a cell; all 32,767 display in the formula bar.
Sheets in a workbook Limited by available memory (default is 3 sheets)
Colors in a workbook 56
Cell styles in a workbook 4,000
Named views (view: A set of display and print settings that you can name
and apply to a workbook. You can create more than one view of the same
workbook without saving separate copies of the workbook.) in a workbook
Limited by available memory
Custom number formats Between 200 and 250, depending on the language
version of Excel you have installed.
Names in a workbook Limited by available memory
Windows in a workbook Limited by system resources
Panes in a window 4
Linked sheets Limited by available memory
Scenarios (scenario: A named set of input values that you can substitute
in a worksheet model.) Limited by available memory; a summary report
shows only the first 251 scenarios
Changing cells in a scenario 32
Adjustable cells in Solver 200
Custom functions Limited by available memory
Zoom range 10 percent to 400 percent
Reports Limited by available memory
Sort references 3 in a single sort; unlimited when using sequential sorts
Undo levels 16
Fields in a data form 32
Custom toolbars in a workbook Limited by available memory
Custom toolbar buttons Limited by available memory
