Recalculation Problems Running Function Macros in Excel 3.00

ID: Q70727

The information in this article applies to:

SUMMARY

There are recalculation problems with function macros in the versions of Microsoft Excel listed above that are not present in Microsoft Excel version 2.1.


MORE INFORMATION

The Microsoft Excel versions above have problems recalculating function macros arranged in a columnar fashion.

Steps to Reproduce Problem

  1. Open a new macro sheet and a new worksheet.


  2. With the macro sheet active choose Define Name from the Formula menu. Set "z" (without the quotation marks) to zero.


  3. On the macro sheet, type the following: 

    
      A1: =ARGUMENT("y",1)
      A2: z=z+y
      A3: =RETURN(z)


  4. Select cell A1 on the macro sheet and define the macro as a function macro and with the name "counter" (without the quotation marks).


  5. On the Worksheet, type the following data: 

    
      A1: 0                  B1: =MOD(A1,2)   C1: =Macro1!counter(B1)
      A2: 0
      A3: =MOD(A2,2)
      A4: =Macro1!counter(A3)


  6. Cells A4 and C1 are counters. They display how many times cells A3 and B1 have equaled zero. Both should show zero at this time.


  7. Put the number 1 in cell A1; notice C1 equals 1. Again, reenter the number 1 in cell A1. Now, C1 equals 2. This is working correctly.


  8. In cell A2, type the number 1. Cell A4 updates correctly to 3.


  9. Reenter the number 1 into cell A2, cell A4 does not update. This is the problem.


Notice that if you reenter the number 1 into cell A1, C1 does update to the number 4. The problem only occurs when the data is aligned in columns. Excel notices that the number in cell A3 does not need to change, and therefore cell A4 is not updated.


STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post more information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

Additional query words: 3.0 4.0 5.0 


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Last Reviewed: March 21, 1999