Bug in excel: Edit formula when 250 is in cell

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clw - 24 Jul 2007 19:16 GMT

Weird bug.

Put 250 in a cell.

Go to another cell.

Go back to the 250 cell and click on the "edit formula" button. it
will crash.

If you first click edit formula, and then 250, it won't crash.

If you have 250 in the cell, and then edit cell directly and type an =
sign before 250 it won't crash.

Tried 1, 2, 25, 100, and 500...no crash.

Tried 249...crashed.

Weird.

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Bob Greenblatt - 24 Jul 2007 21:02 GMT

On 7/24/07 2:16 PM, in article
1185300998.052593.257760@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com, "clw"

> Weird bug.
>
[quoted text clipped - 15 lines]
>
> Weird.

Works fine for me. Do you have any add-ins or macros running that might get
triggered on recalc? I have never seen or heard of anything like this, so I
suspect something unique to your configuration. Does it happen for new empty
workbooks? What version of Excel, and OS?

Signature

Bob Greenblatt [MVP], Macintosh
bobgreenblattATmsnDOTcom

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square_cube@hotmail.com - 25 Jul 2007 11:01 GMT

Tried this and yes, I too get a crash when the cell contains 249 or
250. V odd.

Empty workbook, but I have an auto open macro that sets the Enter Key
not to line feed

OS 10.4.10
Excel 2004, v 11.3.6 (070618)

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Bob Greenblatt - 25 Jul 2007 13:18 GMT

On 7/25/07 6:01 AM, in article
1185357678.615887.285190@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com,

> Tried this and yes, I too get a crash when the cell contains 249 or
> 250. V odd.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> OS 10.4.10
> Excel 2004, v 11.3.6 (070618)

OK, I see this too. Very weird, I admit. I'll report it.

Signature

Bob Greenblatt [MVP], Macintosh
bobgreenblattATmsnDOTcom

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CyberTaz - 26 Jul 2007 11:11 GMT

Interestingly enough I had an opportunity to play with <<XL 2000>> yesterday
- which has the same Edit Formula button. No *crashes*, but...

Entering 250 or 249 in a cell then clicking the button produced the Edit
Formula dialog box with no editable argument fields as though XL was
attempting to recognize the value as a function. Clicking Cancel dismissed
the dialog & left me back in the cell with an = displayed in the Formula Bar
preceding the number. However, if I clicked OK instead of Cancel it prompted
an error message (Error in Formula: suggestions to fix) that looped me back
to the Edit Formula dialog until I hit Cancel.

No other numbers caused the same behavior, but did trigger an even more
abbreviated Edit Formula dialog which simply displayed =(whatever the number
was) & dismissed on OK leaving an = preceding the number in the Formula bar
but not visible in the cell.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

On 7/25/07 8:18 AM, in article C2CCB7C7.99622%bob@nospam.com, "Bob
Greenblatt" <bob@nospam.com> wrote:

> On 7/25/07 6:01 AM, in article
> 1185357678.615887.285190@z24g2000prh.googlegroups.com,
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
>>
> OK, I see this too. Very weird, I admit. I'll report it.

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Bob Greenblatt - 26 Jul 2007 12:54 GMT

On 7/26/07 6:11 AM, in article C2CDEB86.281F6%onlygeneraltaz1@com.cast.net,

> Interestingly enough I had an opportunity to play with <<XL 2000>> yesterday
> - which has the same Edit Formula button. No *crashes*, but...

Yep, seems like some kind of weird core problem.

> Entering 250 or 249 in a cell then clicking the button produced the Edit
> Formula dialog box with no editable argument fields as though XL was
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> was) & dismissed on OK leaving an = preceding the number in the Formula bar
> but not visible in the cell.

Of course, the = will not be visible in the cell. This is a perfectly valid
formula, and the cell displays the value. Press control ` (the upper left
key under ESC) to display the =.

> Regards |:>)
> Bob Jones
> [MVP] Office:Mac

Signature

Bob Greenblatt [MVP], Macintosh
bobgreenblattATmsnDOTcom

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Art - 26 Jul 2007 17:15 GMT

I can duplicate similar results as Bob J.'s on Office X (Excel 10.1.9)
for values 249 and 250 (or =249, =250).

Hitting the "Edit Formula" button results in a dialog with Excel
attempting to interpret the numeric value in the cell as a function -
e.g. =250() is displayed in the edit box.

A message "Choose the help button for help on this function and its
arguments. This function takes no arguments" and "formula result=" is
displayed in the dialog.

Any other numeric value results in a simple dialog- e,g. "formula
result=248" displayed and the same value in the edit box.

New workbook/worksheet, no add-ins, no macros.
(OS X 10.4.10).

This looks like a systemic Excel anomaly as I can duplicate the same
results with Excel/2000 (9.0.6926 SP-3) on Windoze/2000.
(Windoze/2000 5.00.2195 SP-4 under Virtual PC 7.0.2).

Art

> Interestingly enough I had an opportunity to play with <<XL 2000>> yesterday
> - which has the same Edit Formula button. No *crashes*, but...
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
>>>
>> OK, I see this too. Very weird, I admit. I'll report it.

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peterthebag@yahoo.com - 27 Jul 2007 09:44 GMT

Hi,
interestingly, if you put in minus minus 250 like this

=-(-250)

it will not crash on mine - im using 10.4.10 on a PPC wit the latest
version of excel.
I've sent an error report to MS.

cheers,

Peter

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Bob Greenblatt - 27 Jul 2007 13:10 GMT

On 7/27/07 4:44 AM, in article
1185525860.671014.14500@l70g2000hse.googlegroups.com,

> Hi,
> interestingly, if you put in minus minus 250 like this
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
>
> Peter

I guess I have to ask why you want to enter =250, instead of just 250? I see
the bug and also reported it, but why not just enter the value? If you need
to edit the contents of the cell, just select the cell and begin editing in
the formula bar. It will not crash, even if you change it to =250.

Signature

Bob Greenblatt [MVP], Macintosh
bobgreenblattATmsnDOTcom

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CyberTaz - 25 Jul 2007 12:01 GMT

Yeah Bob, I just repeated it here - no modifications to XL.

Type 250 into an empty cell, tab out, reselect the cell with the 250 & click
the = on the formula bar ->Crash. Haven't played more than that, but it is
definitely reproducible.

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

On 7/24/07 4:02 PM, in article C2CBD32B.9949B%bob@nospam.com, "Bob
Greenblatt" <bob@nospam.com> wrote:

> On 7/24/07 2:16 PM, in article
> 1185300998.052593.257760@k79g2000hse.googlegroups.com, "clw"
[quoted text clipped - 23 lines]
> suspect something unique to your configuration. Does it happen for new empty
> workbooks? What version of Excel, and OS?

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Mac Forum / Applications / Excel / July 2007

Bug in excel: Edit formula when 250 is in cell