Microsoft KB Archive/100824

Field Reference Changes with Imported Lotus Files 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() REFERENCES "Switching to Microsoft Excel from Lotus 1-2-3", page 10

KBCategory: kb3rdparty KBSubcategory: Additional reference words: 2.00 2.00c 2.00b 3.00 4.00 4.0a Last reviewed: September 12, 1996 © 1998 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Terms of Use.