Rules for Sheet names
 

I am creating workbooks through a programmatic interface and need to know
what constraints there are on worksheet names. I understand that they have to
be no more than 31 (or 32?) characters in length, but are there other rules
like allowable characters that I need to be aware of?

Sparky

Avoid / \ ? * [ ] and the word history

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
HIS


"sparky" wrote in message
...
I am creating workbooks through a programmatic interface and need to know
what constraints there are on worksheet names. I understand that they have
to
be no more than 31 (or 32?) characters in length, but are there other
rules
like allowable characters that I need to be aware of?

sparky

31 characters max.

Cannot use any of these \ / ? * [ ]


Gord Dibben Excel MVP

On Tue, 11 Jan 2005 15:15:03 -0800, sparky
wrote:

I am creating workbooks through a programmatic interface and need to know
what constraints there are on worksheet names. I understand that they have to
be no more than 31 (or 32?) characters in length, but are there other rules
like allowable characters that I need to be aware of?

I'm guessing that you're going to validate a user's input so that you can rename
a sheet.

If that's close, then I just accept their input and try to rename and then check
for errors.

dim MyNewName as string
mynewname = inputbox(prompt:="what's the new name")
if mynewname = "" then
exit sub 'or whatever
end if

on error resume next
activesheet.name = mynewname
if err.number < 0 then
msgbox "invalid name--not renamed"
err.clear
end if
on error goto 0

=====
There are some other rules--can't use "history" as a name (used with tracking
changes)

And you can't use a name that's alread in use in that workbook.



sparky wrote:

I am creating workbooks through a programmatic interface and need to know
what constraints there are on worksheet names. I understand that they have to
be no more than 31 (or 32?) characters in length, but are there other rules
like allowable characters that I need to be aware of?

--

Dave Peterson

Be aware of the "!" character also. You may have an error when using [...]
addressing.
For example, you can name a sheet with this character. For example
"Sheet!2"

This works...
[Sheet1].Select

But this would not work...
[Sheet!2].Select

HTH
--
Dana DeLouis
Win XP & Office 2003


"sparky" wrote in message
...
I am creating workbooks through a programmatic interface and need to know
what constraints there are on worksheet names. I understand that they have
to
be no more than 31 (or 32?) characters in length, but are there other
rules
like allowable characters that I need to be aware of?