Circular Reference error but no Circ. Ref. found (Excel 2000 SR1)

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I have a user who is getting an error on a specific cell in her spreadsheet: “Excel cannot calculate the formula. Cell references in the formula refer to the formula’s result, creating a circular reference.” I have attempted to use the Auditing toolbar to trace dependants, etc., but everything is checking out okay. I even went so far as to create a VB script to find the circular reference (as detailed in MS Knowledgebase article 213826) and it found nothing. Anyone ever seen this happen before? I would think the spreadsheet may be corrupt, but I’m not sure how to fix it.

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Satiria

Welcome to the Lounge

Try and use the “circular reference” toolbar to find the cells affected. See if this helps. It should come up automatically when MS-Excel finds this condition, but yet again why ask why?

Hope this helps, if not post a reply

Wassim

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The macro they proposed will only work if all the precedents are on the same sheet as the circ reference. If the circular reference crosses sheets the macro will not work and it will find NOTHING.

Trace the precedents/dependents manually by going to each sheet they reference it points to and trace the precedents/dependents. This should give a circular loop eventually.

There is also a message in the bottom which tells what the circ reference is.

Also check for reference to DEFINED NAMED ranges. The defined names do NOT trace that well and may also lead to circ references.
Steve

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Have tried using the precedent/dependent cells – everything checks out okay. Still wondering if the file isn’t somehow corrupt. I found something on the knowledgebase about Service Releases. I was incorrect in my first post. This was plain Excel 2000. I’m attempting to install SR1 now – we’ll see if that makes a difference. Any other suggestions, though, would be appreciated.

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Can you censor it and post it?

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