Is it a bug?

  • Thread starter Thread starter DA
  • Start date Start date
D

DA

I posted this on the excel.programming section and have gotten no
response their yet, but it isn't a macro question, so perhaps this
group is better:

I have been sent a file (file 1) and a slightly different version of
it (file 2) from an outside party. Both of these files have the same
link to some other file (file 3) that they didn't send me. So, when I
try to open either file 1 or 2, it tells me it cannot find a file
(file 3 I'm sure) and asks me whether to "continue" opening file 1 (or
2) without updating the vlaues from file 3 or to try to "edit links".
I choose to continue.

Apparently, a value in file 3 changed between the time they produced
file 1 and file 2 and I am interested in that change.


It seems that, if I open file 1, I see results based on the older
value. When I then open file 2, I see results based on the new value,
BUT, it also changes the results in file 1 in that same cell!


If I do the sequence the other way, just the reverse happens.


Since I have told both files to just "continue", it seems bizarre to
me that the file opened first gets an update from the file opened
second, when the latter is opened.


Has anyone experiecned this? It is as if EXCEL is saying, though i
can't see the source file, since you have now opened another file that
looks at that same source file location, I will use that 2nd file's
cell value in place of what I had there in the first file. Obviously,
if file 2 was just a mere update of file 1, it would make some sense
to have file 1 defer to file 2's values. However, if you open the
newer file first, then the older one, you'd get the old value in both
files.


I contend it should ignore any updates, since I told it to "continue"
without updating.


Thanks!
Dean
 
Hi Dean,

I don't know the in's and out's of it but I can confirm that it does happen
in XL97 as well. It seems to me as if XL is using an address in memory
derived from the file name to store that value that it cannot update and so
the second value is stored in the same place. It therefore replaces the
previous value.

--
Regards,

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings

(e-mail address removed)
Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk
 
I've noticed similar things here with differing files based on the same
template.

The only way I can think of to get round this (ie allow you to have both
sets of data available at the same time), is to open one, select/copy the
entire sheet to another workbook using paste special > values, then close
the original file. Repeat the process with the second file.

Long winded, but it works.
 
I've noticed similar things here with differing files based on the same
template.

The only way I can think of to get round this (ie allow you to have both
sets of data available at the same time), is to open one, select/copy the
entire sheet to another workbook using paste special  > values, then close
the  original file. Repeat the process with the second file.

Long winded, but it works.

--
Ian













- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

The thing that bothered me most is, until I realized what was
happening, I kept seeing the results (whihc i was trying to audit)
change before my very eyes (even though I had done nothing), and it
all had to do with opening and clsoing the other file. I thought I
was having serial senior moments! Fortunately, this doens't happen
much, but it certainly is a bug to be aware of. I wonder if Microsoft
is aware of it, or cares!

BTW, I have EXCEL 2002.

Other comments appreciated.
Dean
 
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