Microsoft KB Archive/213533

= XL2000: Defined Names Are Case Sensitive =

Article ID: 213533

Article Last Modified on 10/10/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q213533





SYMPTOMS
When you run a Visual Basic for Applications macro in Microsoft Excel, and your macro code reads the Name property of an item in the Names collection, the result may be slightly different than the result you receive in versions of Excel earlier than Microsoft Excel 97. This behavior occurs because defined names are now case sensitive in Microsoft Excel.

This article explains the new behavior and the problems it may cause.



MORE INFORMATION
Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied. This includes, but is not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language that is being demonstrated and with the tools that are used to create and to debug procedures. Microsoft support engineers 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 requirements.

When you define names in a workbook in Microsoft Excel, the workbook cannot contain two or more defined names that differ from each by only the case of some or all of their letters. For example, you cannot create the following defined names in the same workbook:

  Test test tEST TEST

Although the names use different combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters, the letters in each name are all the same. Therefore, Microsoft Excel considers these four names to be identical. Defining a name in a workbook when another identical name (except for the case) already exists results in the elimination of the original name. For example, if you define the name "test" (without the quotation marks), Microsoft Excel eliminates the name "Test" (without the quotation marks) from the workbook.

In Microsoft Excel, you can check the name of a defined name by using Visual Basic for Applications macro code similar to the following:

MsgBox ThisWorkbook.Names(5).Name

MsgBox ThisWorkbook.Names("test").Name

In Microsoft Excel, if you specify a name within the parentheses in the sample code, the Name property returns a name that is identical (in terms of case) to the name that is defined in the Define Name dialog box. In versions of Excel earlier than Excel 97, the Name property returns a name that is identical (in terms of case) to the name that you specify in the parentheses.

To demonstrate the difference in behavior, run the following subroutine:

Sub TestName MyArray = Array("test", "Test", "tEST", "TEST") For Each xName In MyArray ThisWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=xName, RefersTo:="5" MsgBox ThisWorkbook.Names("test").Name Next xName End Sub

The message boxes display different values, depending on the version of Microsoft Excel that you are using.

                 MsgBox Value in            MsgBox Value in   Defined name   Microsoft Excel 97, 2000   Microsoft Excel 5.0, 7.0 --

test          test                       test Test          Test                       test tEST          tEST                       test TEST          TEST                       test

This change in behavior may cause a problem if you compare the name that is returned by a Name property to a string. For example, although the following code always works in versions of Excel earlier than Excel 97, it may not work in the current version of Microsoft Excel:

MsgBox ThisWorkbook.Names("test").Name = "test"

You can prevent problems from occurring by standardizing the case of the name before you compare it. For example, the following code works correctly in any version of Microsoft Excel:

MsgBox UCase(ThisWorkbook.Names("test").Name) = UCase("test")

Additional query words: XL2000

Keywords: kbprb KB213533

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