XL97: Illegal Operation Unhiding a Row with a Macro

ID: Q159947

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

When you run a Visual Basic for Applications macro in Microsoft Excel 97, if the macro contains a command that unhides a row in a worksheet, you may receive the following error message: 

   This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.
   If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.
If you click Details, you receive the following error message: 

   EXCEL caused an invalid page fault in module EXCEL.EXE at
   014f:30111ca6.

CAUSE

This problem may occur when the worksheet contains a very large number of hidden rows (usually, greater than 32768 rows) and you attempt to unhide a row by setting the Hidden property of the row to False. The following is an example of code that may cause the macro to fail: 

   Selection.EntireRow.Hidden = False

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web: 

   http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/refguide/
To prevent this problem from occurring, do not set the Hidden property of an entire row to False if a very large number of rows are hidden in the worksheet. Instead, set the RowHeight property of the row equal to an appropriate value. For example, to set the height of a hidden row to 12, use the following line of code: 

   Selection.EntireRow.RowHeight = 12
Alternatively, use the following line of code: 

   Selection.EntireRow.RowHeight = Selection.Offset(-1, 0).RowHeight
This code sets the height of the hidden row equal to the height of the row immediately above it.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

You can use the Hidden property whenever you want to hide or unhide an entire row or column in a worksheet. For example, to hide the row that contains the active cell, use the following line of code: 

   ActiveCell.EntireRow.Hidden = True
To unhide a hidden row, set the Hidden property for that row to False. To do this, use the following line of code: 

   ActiveCell.EntireRow.Hidden = False
This line of code may fail if more than half of the rows in the worksheet are hidden.

Additional query words: XL97 

Keywords          : kberrmsg kbdta kbdtacode KbVBA xlvbmigrate 
Version           : WINDOWS:97
Platform          : WINDOWS
Issue type        : kbbug

Last Reviewed: June 30, 1999