Can Someone Please Tell Me What's Going On

  • Thread starter Thread starter JimS
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JimS

=IF(RC[-5]="","",RC[-5]+RC[-4])

=IF(RC[-11]="","",IF(RC[-1]="","",IF(RC[-11]=RC[-1],"+","-")))

=IF(RC[-1]="","",IF(RC[-1]<RC[-4],"u",IF(RC[-1]>RC[-4],"o",IF(RC[-1]=RC[-4],"p"))))

In all of my formulas in all of my workbooks (that I've been working
on) there is this "RC." I have no earthly idea what this is or what
it means. It's in every formula multiple times.

I can't even figure out my own formulas, although they do seem to
work.
 
It's called R1C1 referencing.

RC = row/column

Where A1 refers to column A row 1, in R1C1 reference style A1 = R1C1 = row 1
column 1. A10 = R10C1.

To switch it back to A1 reference style:

In Excel 2007:

Office button>Excel Options>Formulas>Working with formulas>uncheck R1C1
reference style>OK out

Other versions of Excel:

Tools>Options>General tab>Settings>uncheck R1C1 reference style>OK out
 
Thanks, Biff. One more question. I was working on my spreadsheet
yesterday and I got a message saying that it was corrupted. I closed
it out and got it back, and it appears that since that happened is
when it switched to this RC thing.

I'm wondering, how did it get corrupted, and could that be why it made
this switch all on its own?

Thanks again.
 
Sorry, can't be more specific, but...
how did it get corrupted
Click to expand...

Hard to say!
could that be why it made this switch all on its own?
Click to expand...

I guess it's possible

Typically, the first file you open in an Excel session will determine
certain settings for every file you open during that session. The cell
reference style is one of those settings.

For example, someone sends you a file and they have the reference style set
to R1C1 in that file. If Excel is not currently running and you double click
the file that was sent to you Excel opens and loads the file and sets the
reference style to R1C1. If you then close that file but Excel is still
running and you then open another file that uses A1 referencing, that file
will now use the R1C1 setting. Every file you open during that Excel session
will use R1C1 referencing because the first file opened in that session was
set to use R1C1.

Another setting that gets applied in this same manor is calculation. If the
first file you open during a session is set to manual calculation then every
file you open during that session will have calculation set to manual. We
see questions like this all the time: why aren't my formulas updating?. It's
almost always due to the calculation having been set to manual and the
"session rule" is usually the culprit.
 
No idea why it would be corrupt in the first place (a glitch in the
Matrix?), but internally formulas are stored in this style so it makes
sense for it to fall back to this if it has recovered a file.
 
I doubt that has anything to do with what happened to the OP. His formula
formats changed into R1C1 reference style not formula view

--


Regards,


Peo Sjoblom
 
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