Criteria Range Must Be Contiguous in Excel

Last reviewed: November 2, 1994
Article ID: Q58100

SUMMARY

A criteria range must be a contiguous area at least 1 column wide and 2 rows high. There may be blank columns or rows in a criteria range.

Consider the following example:

          A            B          C
      -----------------------------------
   1 |  Salary   |           | Hire_Date |
   2 |  >25000   |           |>01/01/1985|
   3 |           |           |           |

Assuming that Salary and Hire_Date are field names in a database, the ranges A1:C3, A1:B2, and A1:A3 are all valid criteria ranges even though column B and row 3 are blank. Selecting A1:A2 and C1:C2 and trying to set criteria on this range will result in the error "Can't do that to a multiple selection."

KBCategory: kbusage
KBSubcategory:
Additional reference words: noupd

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Last reviewed: November 2, 1994
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