Open a new blank workbook, go to the VBA immediate window and type cells = 1. This will fill every
cell in sheet1 with a number 1. Save the file as number1.xls and close the file.

Open another new blank workbook, go to the VBA immediate window and type cells = "a". This will
fill every cell in sheet1 with a letter a. Save the file as lettera.xls and close the file.

Now bring up the windows explorer and look at the size of both files. Why is the file with the
letter "a" bigger than the file with the number 1? I thought a number takes up more bytes than a
single letter.

As a control experiment, try running the following procedure twice, once with a number and once with
a letter. This fills every cell in the entire workbook. You may want to defrag your drive and
and/or turn your cpu fan on high. This procedure will put quite a strain on your puter's ticker.

Sub fillworkbook()
Dim i as Worksheet

For Each i in Sheets
i.cells = 1
Next i

End

Sure is a time waster but if you are interested in how Excel BIFF files are
structured then take a peek here....

http://sc.openoffice.org/excelfileformat.pdf

--
Cheers
Nigel



"Jeff" wrote in message
...
Open a new blank workbook, go to the VBA immediate window and type cells =
1. This will fill every
cell in sheet1 with a number 1. Save the file as number1.xls and close
the file.

Open another new blank workbook, go to the VBA immediate window and type
cells = "a". This will
fill every cell in sheet1 with a letter a. Save the file as lettera.xls
and close the file.

Now bring up the windows explorer and look at the size of both files. Why
is the file with the
letter "a" bigger than the file with the number 1? I thought a number
takes up more bytes than a
single letter.

As a control experiment, try running the following procedure twice, once
with a number and once with
a letter. This fills every cell in the entire workbook. You may want to
defrag your drive and
and/or turn your cpu fan on high. This procedure will put quite a strain
on your puter's ticker.

Sub fillworkbook()
Dim i as Worksheet

For Each i in Sheets
i.cells = 1
Next i

End