Field Reference Changes with Imported Lotus Files

Microsoft Excel for Windows version 2.x, 3.0, 4.0, and 4.0a

SUMMARY

When you import a Lotus 1-2-3 file that contains a function with an argument that refers to a field reference (it can refer to a database field or a column index number), the argument may seem to change its reference. When you examine the contents of the function, the field argument will contain a "+1" (without the quotation marks). This situation may also occur if an existing database function is edited using Lotus function formulas.

This situation occurs because Lotus 1-2-3 uses a different numbering convention than Microsoft Excel. Lotus 1-2-3 begins the numbering position of fields with column 0; in Microsoft Excel for Windows, the numbering position starts at 1. In order to maintain compatibility between Lotus 1-2-3 and Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Excel automatically adds 1 to the field reference in those functions that reference a specific field in a range.

MORE INFORMATION

This behavior includes, but is not limited to the following functions:

DAVERAGE() DCOUNT() DCOUNTA() DGET() DMAX() DMIN() DPRODUCT() DSTDEV() DSTDEVP() DSUM() DVAR() DVARP() HLOOKUP() INDEX() MATCH() MID() VLOOKUP()

REFERENCES

"Switching to Microsoft Excel from Lotus 1-2-3", page 10