Sheet Name Containing a Hyphen Gives an Error in Excel

 Last reviewed: November 30, 1994
Article ID: Q44012
The information in this article applies to:
  • Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 2.x, 3.0, 4.0, 5.0
  • Microsoft Excel for the Macintosh, versions 4.0, 5.0

SUMMARY

Both the TEXTREF macro function and the FORMULA macro function give an error message if the sheet name contains a hyphen (for example, "sheet-1.xls").

These error messages seem to be caused by the hyphen in the name. If you take the hyphen out, the error disappears. Hyphens seem to be a problem only if the hyphen is in an actual sheet name; a hyphen in another part of a FORMULA or TEXTREF statement does not seem to cause the problem.

The following are examples of statements that can cause the error: 

   =TEXTREF("SHEET-1.XLS!$A$4",TRUE)                       #REF!

   =FORMULA("=sheet-1.xls!r4c1",SHEET1.XLS!$A$2)           #VALUE!
   =FORMULA("=sheet-1.xls!r4c1",'SHEET-1.XLS'!$A$2)        #VALUE!
The following do not cause an error: 

   =FORMULA("=sheet1.xls!r1c1",SHEET1.XLS!$A$2)
   =FORMULA("=sheet1.xls!r1c1",'SHEET-1.XLS'!$A$2)
   =FORMULA("-",'SHEET-1.XLS'!$A$2)

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Additional reference words: 2.0 2.00 2.01 2.1 2.10 3.0 3.00
4.0 4.00 5.00

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Last reviewed: November 30, 1994
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