More Data Pasted Than Expected with SELECTION.OFFSET.SELECT

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 5.0, 5.0c
• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0, 7.0a

SYMPTOMS

When you use the following Visual Basic, Applications Edition, command in a macro

   SELECTION.OFFSET(rowOffset, columnOffset).SELECT

• More data is pasted to the destination than expected.

  -or-

• You receive the "Copy and Paste Areas Are Different Shapes" error message.

CAUSE

When you use a macro to paste data in a worksheet, and you then attempt to paste another selection to the same worksheet, if you do not make a new selection for the range that you want to paste to, the copied data is pasted to the range that you previously pasted to. For example, if you copy one column of cells, and the last range you pasted to contained three columns, when you use the Paste method without making another selection, the three columns are filled with the single column of data you copied.

If you use the Offset method to offset the selected range, the offset selection retains the size of the previously pasted range (that is, the entire selected range is offset by the number of specified rows and columns).

In addition, because the Paste method allows you to paste data to fill the entire selected range, when you offset the selected range, if that range is larger than the range of data you want to paste, Microsoft Excel will fill the remaining cells in the selection.

WORKAROUND

To work around this problem, create a variable for your selection, and use the Resize method to make the destination range the desired size. For example, to create a destination range that is offset by the number of columns in your selection, but is resized to one column, use the following code:

   x = Selection.Columns.Count
      Selection.Offset(0, x).Resize(, 1).Select

MORE INFORMATION

Steps to Reproduce Behavior

1. Create a workbook with two worksheets, Sheet2 (the sheet that the original data will be on), and Sheet 1 (the sheet on which data will be pasted).

2. On Sheet2, type the following information:

              A        B      C
         -------------------------
   
         1    100      200    300
         2    100      200    300
         3    100      200    300
         4    100      200    300
         5    100      200    300
   
   

3. In a Visual Basic module, type the following macro:

      Sub Test()
           ' Select the first two columns from the source sheet
           Sheets("Sheet2").Select
           Range("A1:B5").Select
           Selection.Copy
           ' Paste the data into the destination sheet
           Sheets("Sheet1").Select
           ActiveSheet.Paste
           Application.CutCopyMode = False
           ' Copy the third column from the destination sheet
           Sheets("Sheet2").Select
           Range("C1:C5").Select
          ' Paste it into the destination area
           Selection.Copy
           Sheets("Sheet1").Select
           Selection.Offset(0,2).Select
           ActiveSheet.Paste
      End Sub
   
   

           A        B      C      D
      ---------------------------------

      1    100      200    300    300
      2    100      200    300    300
      3    100      200    300    300
      4    100      200    300    300
      5    100      200    300    300

   Selection.Offset(0,2).Select

   -with-

    x = Selection.Columns.Count
      Selection.Offset(0, x).Resize(, 1).Select

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