Memory Limitations and the Use of ""

  • Thread starter Thread starter David Neil
  • Start date Start date
D

David Neil

To keep a database rather small, I have replaced 0's
with "".

Question: when I do a find/replace, replacing all 0's
with nothing (not even "") my database shrinks to 539kb.
However, if I rebuild my database, with the formula's
using "" instead of 0's, then my datbase grows to 1.7mb.

Does anyone know what the difference is between nothing
in the Replace menu selection and "". Better yet, how do
I get the smallest amount of space useage.

Thanks,

David
 
Here's my two cents...

Excel is doing exactly what your are telling it to do. If
you've replaced 0 with "", then Excel has stored twice as
many characters in every row that had a 0. However, Excel
is smart enough to recognize a truly blank cell, but that
isn't "" actually placed in the cell.

Unfortunately, a true blank sometimes causes me problems
when I'm trying to save things in different text formats
or build pivot tables. Sometimes zero is better than a
blank. If you're not trying to do anything too fancy and
keep your database small, I'd go with true blanks.

Eric
 
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