Microsoft KB Archive/100824

{| = Field Reference Changes with Imported Lotus Files =
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Last reviewed: September 12, 1996

Article ID: Q100824 The information in this article applies to: 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