Max number of columns in Excel 2003

[trdonja]

thread68-1509745

As I see in the thread I've referenced there DOES seem to be a solution, but the article is missing from the site. It seems to me, that article has been removed with an intention for solution to remain unknown. Call me wikileaks paranoid, but the site in qurestion was an Excel developers site, wasn't it? Getting to know the workaround for the 256 columns problem could be a major blow for future sales of the program, if it becomes too widely known.

So I would ask anyone who managed to read the solution in that article to kindly share it with the rest.

 

[GlennUK]

future sales of the program" ???? Excel 2003 is now considered out-of-date and defunct ( not be me, by Microsoft, well soon anyway ). Excel 2007 does not have that restriction. I'll bet you can't upgrade, eh?

Cheers, Glenn.

Beauty is in the eye of the beerholder.

 

[trdonja]

By program I mean Excel series, including 2007, 2010 etc. I don't miss anything from new versions, except increased row/column limits. On the other hand I have tested new versions with stopwatch in my hand and the tests I ran were a complete disaster, Excel 2007 was 6-7 times slower at certain tasks. So I have no itch to buy a new version, when 2003 works fine.

Someone managed to find out how to increase the limitations and I am asking those people to explain, knowing that they are members of this forum as well.

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,

256 is a rigid max column condition.

However, with a properly constructed workbook, it should not matter. Most importantly, any sheet should rarely need that many column.

If you are STORING data and adding periods (DAYS, WEEKS, MONTHS...) as columns, your database design is severely flawed!

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[trdonja]

Skip, can you tell me please what was on the link that you posted in the referenced thread 2 years ago?

The problem is not "storage" sheet, it's the files that I use for collecting/importing data into the file. The structure of such data can be sometimes very hard to control.

 

[trdonja]

Sorry, correction, it was fneily who posted it first, but you reposted working link.

 

[SkipVought]

Check out

http://www.klippert.com/TCC/MaExcel.htm

And see the comment regarding "more rows/more columns"

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[trdonja]

Yes, and it is the same team of developers that posted the solution how to circumvent the 256 column limit in Excel 2003. Which is exactly the reason, why I think they were forced to remove the article - in order to start promoting the same "feature" in Excel 2007/2010.

As you can see from the referenced thread it seems almost certain that the solution was working (from members' positive feedback) and it was possible to have more than 256 columns in Excel 2003.

 

[SkipVought]

BTW, this was/is Internet Searching 101. I doubt that I ever read anything on this site, but I did an internet search.

TODAY, something in the originally posted path had been deleted. So I looked at

http://www.klippert.com

and drilled down to what seemed to be the appropriate page and scanned to find "the answer."

Internet Searching 101!

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[trdonja]

Yeah... I did internet search as well, but I didn't find the referenced article. The original article was posted in August 2005 on this site:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/excel/

The archive goes only to September 2005, so the article is gone. The article that you suggest is not the same article, that was posted on that site in August 2005. Why do I think so? Because Office 2007 and "your" article says that max number of columns is 16,384. The article that seemed to make couple of tek-tips members happy, offered solution for 18278 columns. Maybe I am wrong...

Just to clarify, I did want to send a PM to those members but I don't see the way to do so.

 

[trdonja]

Ok, I found out how to get 18000 columns in Excel 2003. A little bit of brainstorming, also from this thread (and links from sites from this thread), pointed me in right direction. Finally!

 

[SkipVought]

Please share your good fortune with all of us.

Skip,

_{Just traded in my old subtlety...
for a NUANCE!}

 

[trdonja]

It is not same as having a real sheet with 18k columns. But so far it seems that the functionalities which come with such implementation will be useful for what I need it. It's just slightly more complicated...

Control Toolbox --> More Controls --> Microsoft Office Spreadsheet 10.0 --> Add