Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!ihnp4!ihlpf!straka From: straka@ihlpf.ATT.COM (Straka) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac Subject: Re: MS Excel recalculations Message-ID: <4748@ihlpf.ATT.COM> Date: 13 May 88 18:02:11 GMT References: <17102@cornell.UUCP> Reply-To: straka@ihlpf.UUCP (55223-Straka,R.J.) Distribution: comp Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois Lines: 34 In article <17102@cornell.UUCP> moore@cs.cornell.edu (Doug Moore) writes: >Excel 1.04 is being used to maintain a database and keep some statistics derived >from it. The database has 7 or 8 columns of input and 4 columns calculated >from the other 7 or 8. The daily routine is >(a) Insert 10 or so new lines into the database >(b) Wait, while each of the 4 columns is recalculated, to no purpose, > for each of the entries already in the database. >(c) Add the new entries, etc. > >How can we avoid step (b)? How does Excel decide when something must be >recalculated? Suggestions? Or is this what one deserves for buying from MSoft? 1) Excel has a "smart" recalc flag that tells when recalc is necessary. 2) If you click the mouse on some other cell, or start typing in a cell, the recalc comes to a halt, unlike that nasty 1-2-3 program, which locks things up on you until IT decides that it will relinquish the keyboard to you. Excel will resume the recalc where it left off (unless something else has changed, and it will start from scratch again) after a few seconds of inactivity. 3) There is a recalc menu item that allows you to go manual recalc. However, Excel does have a few deficiencies in this area: 1) Saving always forces a recalc. If it is a long one, you can probably interrupt it with a ^., but be careful to make sure that the original file is not overwritten with nothing, leaving no data file. I don't think this is too much of a problem, but I tend to be VERY conservative! MS support tells me that you can interrupt the recalc without wiping out the file, but not to interrupt during the actual file save. 2) There should be a visible "recalc needed" flag on the screen. There isn't. -- Rich Straka ihnp4!ihlpf!straka Advice for the day: "MSDOS - just say no."