Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!rutgers!cmcl2!husc6!ut-sally!ut-ngp!wmartin From: wmartin@ut-ngp.UUCP Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Followup to corrupted Excel file problem. Message-ID: <6993@ut-ngp.UUCP> Date: Thu, 3-Dec-87 21:12:19 EST Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.6993 Posted: Thu Dec 3 21:12:19 1987 Date-Received: Sun, 6-Dec-87 20:12:04 EST Reply-To: wmartin@ngp.UUCP (Wiley Sanders) Organization: UTexas Computation Center, Austin, Texas Lines: 28 Last week I posted a note about losing an Excel file - although the file remained intact as far as my disk sector editor was concerned, Excel could not read it without crashing. A few people sent me mail, saying that they had had that same problem and requesting that I send the Excel file format if I find it out. I haven't (nobody volunteered it, anyway), but I did a little experiment, saving a file in all 4 Excel formats: File Time Preserve Readable File Size to Read Formats & via Sector Type (char) In Formulas Editor Excel 16830 5.91 sec Yes No SYLK 16392 27.22 Yes Yes WKS 14370 23.39 Yes(mostly) No Text 3236 13.75 No Yes By "readable" I mean you could crank up Fedit and read the numbers straight off the screen. The SYLK format is documented in various Microsoft manuals. The results imply that if you have a database that is very important to you, you might want to keep it in SYLK or Text format in case Excel decides to make it unreadable. -- Wiley Sanders, Civil Engineering Dept, UT-Austin secret NSA CIA anti Soviet Iran terrorist nuclear drug decoder ring - take THAT, NSA line-eater!