XL97: Defined Names Are Case Sensitive in Microsoft Excel 97

When you run a Visual Basic for Applications macro in Microsoft Excel 97, and your macro code reads the Name property of an item in the Names collection, the result may be slightly different than the result you receive in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel. This behavior occurs because defined names are case sensitive in Microsoft Excel 97.

This article explains the new behavior and the problems it may cause.

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For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;cntactms) When you define names in a workbook in Microsoft Excel, the workbook cannot contain two or more defined names that differ from each by only the case of some or all of their letters. For example, you cannot create the following defined names in the same workbook: Although the names use different combinations of uppercase and lowercase letters, the letters in each name are all the same. Therefore, Microsoft Excel considers these four names to be identical. Defining a name in a workbook when another identical name (except for the case) already exists results in the elimination of the original name. For example, if you define the name test, Microsoft Excel eliminates the name Test from the workbook.

In Microsoft Excel, you can check the name of a defined name by using Visual Basic for Applications macro code similar to the following: In Microsoft Excel 97, if you specify a name within the parentheses in the sample code, the Name property returns a name that is identical (in terms of case) to the name that is defined in the Define Name dialog box. In earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, the Name property returns a name that is identical (in terms of case) to the name that you specify in the parentheses.

To demonstrate the difference in behavior, run the following subroutine: The message boxes display different values, depending on the version of Microsoft Excel that you are using.

This change in behavior may cause a problem if you compare the name that is returned by a Name property to a string. For example, although the following code always works in earlier versions of Microsoft Excel, it may not work in Microsoft Excel 97: You can prevent problems from occurring by standardizing the case of the name before you compare it. For example, the following code works correctly in any version of Microsoft Excel: