XL97: Formula Is Not Recalculated After Paste Special Operation

When you copy values and perform a Paste Special operation, formulas that refer to the pasted values may not be automatically recalculated.

This problem occurs if the following conditions are true:

• You copy values on a worksheet. -and-
  
  
• You click Values in the Paste Special dialog box. -and-
  
  
• You click Skip Blanks in the Paste Special dialog box. -and-
  
  
• The formula is in the destination range of the pasted values. -and-
  
  
• The formula is an array formula.

To prevent this problem, obtain and install Microsoft Office 97, Service Release 2 (SR-2).

For additional information about SR-2, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows. This problem was corrected in Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows, Service Release 2 (SR-2).

Example

To see an example of the problem described in the "Symptoms" section of this article, follow these steps:

1. Create a new workbook.
2. Type the following values in Sheet1:

         A1: a   B1: 1  C1: 10
         A2: b   B2: 2  C2: 20
         A3:     B3:    C3:
         A4: a   B4: 1  C4: 10
         A5: b   B5: 2  C5: 20
   						

3. Type the following formula in cell B7:
   

         =SUM(IF(A1:A5="a",B1:B5))
   						

   NOTE: Note that you must enter this formula as an array formula. To do this, type the formula in the formula bar, and then press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to enter the formula.
   
   The formula returns a value of 2.
4. Select cells C1:C8, and then click Copy on the Edit menu.
5. Select cell B1.
6. Click Paste Special on the Edit menu.
7. In the Paste Special dialog box, click Values under Paste, and click Skip Blanks. Click OK.

The new values are pasted into column B, but the formula in cell B7 is not recalculated.