DOCERR: Microsoft Excel's Internal Format Table Doc Has Errors

5.00    | 5.00
WINDOWS | WINDOWS NT
kbprg kbdocerr 

• Microsoft Excel Software Development Kit, version 5.0
• Microsoft Excel 2000

SYMPTOMS

On page 251 of the Microsoft Excel Developer's Kit 5.0 documentation for the XF record indicates that the six-byte offset should be an index to a FORMAT record. However, if you were to look at an actual XF record in a Microsoft Excel-generated BIFF file, you would most likely see that the index numbers do not seem to reconcile with the existing FONT table.

CAUSE

In Microsoft Excel versions prior to 5.0, all number format information was included with the Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF) file in FORMAT records. These FORMAT records were stored together in the BIFF file and could be reached by providing an index number to the correct FORMAT record as part of the XF record.

Starting with Microsoft Excel version 5.0, many of the built-in number formats were moved to an internal table and are no longer saved with the file as FORMAT records. These number formats are still reached by providing an index into the table as part of the XF record. However, the internal number format table is not documented within the Microsoft Excel Developer's Kit version 5.0.

RESOLUTION

The following table lists all the number formats that are now maintained internally within Microsoft Excel. The index number to the format table precedes the format description. Note that 0x17 through 0x24 are reserved for international versions and are undocumented at this time.

Index     Format String
-------------------------------------
0x00      General
0x01      0
0x02      0.00
0x03      #,##0
0x04      #,##0.00
0x05      ($#,##0_);($#,##0)
0x06      ($#,##0_);[Red]($#,##0)
0x07      ($#,##0.00_);($#,##0.00)
0x08      ($#,##0.00_);[Red]($#,##0.00)
0x09      0%
0x0a      0.00%
0x0b      0.00E+00
0x0c      # ?/?
0x0d      # ??/??
0x0e      m/d/yy
0x0f      d-mmm-yy
0x10      d-mmm
0x11      mmm-yy
0x12      h:mm AM/PM
0x13      h:mm:ss AM/PM
0x14      h:mm
0x15      h:mm:ss
0x16      m/d/yy h:mm
0x25      (#,##0_);(#,##0)
0x26      (#,##0_);[Red](#,##0)
0x27      (#,##0.00_);(#,##0.00)
0x28      (#,##0.00_);[Red](#,##0.00)
0x29      _(* #,##0_);_(* (#,##0);_(* "-"_);_(@_)
0x2a      _($* #,##0_);_($* (#,##0);_($* "-"_);_(@_)
0x2b      _(* #,##0.00_);_(* (#,##0.00);_(* "-"??_);_(@_)
0x2c      _($* #,##0.00_);_($* (#,##0.00);_($* "-"??_);_(@_)
0x2d      mm:ss
0x2e      [h]:mm:ss
0x2f      mm:ss.0
0x30      ##0.0E+0
0x31      @ 

REFERENCES

Microsoft Excel Developer's Kit version 5, Chapter 3

Additional query words: 5.00 7.00

Keywords : ExcelSDK
Version : :5.0; WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type :