# of Rows Handled By Excel

[rossdross]

Any particular reason why excel still only handles 65k or so rows worth of
data?

I am an excel guru but my access skills are limited. I HATE that I can't do
some projects simply because the program can't handle more than 65k lines of
data.

I understand the system limitations (vlookups on 65k of data can bring a
computer to a halt) but I will love the ability to manipulate 120k rows worth
of data.

Is this ever going to be changed? Myself and my fellow financial analysts
would LOVE this!

--
Dan Ross


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[JE McGimpsey]

It still only handles 65536 rows since rewriting the application code to
allow more is a massive undertaking. 65536 is 2^16, which means that the
number of rows fits exactly in 2 bytes. To increase the number of rows
would require at least 3 bytes - and would likely impact nearly every
aspect of XL's calculation engine.

As to whether it will be changed: if it were, those that know couldn't
tell you (due to non-disclosure agreements).

Aaron Kempf may be along in a bit to tell you why data sets with more
than 65K records belong in a database. He's probably right in that
(though he's deluded himself into thinking that dbs should be used
*instead* of XL under all circumstances).

Of course, you could break your data set up into more sheets or
columns...