Number of characters in a cell

[Guest]

In a spreadsheet, I have a CELL (not the formula bar) that is displaying over
1550 characters, how is this possible?. Other cells limit character count
per the 1024 limit. If I copy the contents of this errant sell to another
part of the spreadsheet, the contents get spread over a number of rows (in
the same column).
As part of the puzzle, I can't see how to verify how many characters are in
a cell whilst performing free-form text entry into a cell (other than to use
the 'Mid' function and test when it hits a pre-defined limit), not do I see
how this errant cell came to be created. There is a word count function but
no character count function that I can find.
There are other cells in the same column that exhibit this anomaly, others
that don't. I have tried merging cells to get the effect but did not manage
to replicate it. The errant cells have a single identity e.g. D3, they are
not a range of cells, nor is the content of the cell the result of a
concatenation of data elsewhere on the spreadsheet (CONCATENATE or use of '&'
to 'glue' text together).

 

[Guest]

LEN will count the number of characters in a cell. I believe you can
overcome the character limit by inserting "alt+enter" at various points in
the cell.

 

[Gord Dibben]

If you go to Format>Cells>Alignment and disable "wrap text" do you see any
little square boxes in the cell's content?

If so, this would indicate soemone has used ALT + ENTER to expand the character
limit.

=LEN(D3) would give you a count of characters in the cell.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Guest]

I have been helpfully advised about the effects of Alt /Enter on text length
entry into a cell, and the use of the LEN fuction to character count (thank
you), but I still don't understand why, when I copy a text filled cell (with
more than 1024 characters) that it gets split across several cells
(vertically).... sometimes!!!. I created a test cases with single Alt/Enter
entry, double Alt/Enter codes and combinations with space characters to see
if I could force the splitting to occur, but have not been successful in
replicating the effect. I am concerned because I am only intending to move a
single cells content, if I was to paste a single, or maybe even sort
including this cell (something I haven't tried yet) and have that cell split
itself, I would have (possibly) created multiple additional cells
unintentionally and/or worse, unknowingly.