XL97: Illegal Operation Unhiding a Row with a Macro

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you run a Visual Basic for Applications macro in Microsoft Excel 97, if the macro contains a command that unhides a row in a worksheet, you may receive the following error message:

   This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down.
   If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.

   EXCEL caused an invalid page fault in module EXCEL.EXE at
   014f:30111ca6.

CAUSE

This problem may occur when the worksheet contains a very large number of hidden rows (usually, greater than 32768 rows) and you attempt to unhide a row by setting the Hidden property of the row to False. The following is an example of code that may cause the macro to fail:

   Selection.EntireRow.Hidden = False

WORKAROUND

Microsoft provides examples of Visual Basic for Applications procedures for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. The Visual Basic procedures in this article are provided 'as is' and Microsoft does not guarantee that they can be used in all situations. While Microsoft support engineers can help explain the functionality of a particular macro, they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality, nor will they help you construct macros to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to consult one of the Microsoft Solution Providers. Solution Providers offer a wide range of fee-based services, including creating custom macros. For more information about Microsoft Solution Providers, call Microsoft Customer Information Service at (800) 426-9400.

To prevent this problem from occurring, do not set the Hidden property of an entire row to False if a very large number of rows are hidden in the worksheet. Instead, set the RowHeight property of the row equal to an appropriate value. For example, to set the height of a hidden row to 12, use the following line of code:

   Selection.EntireRow.RowHeight = 12

   Selection.EntireRow.RowHeight = Selection.Offset(-1, 0).RowHeight

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

MORE INFORMATION

You can use the Hidden property whenever you want to hide or unhide an entire row or column in a worksheet. For example, to hide the row that contains the active cell, use the following line of code:

   ActiveCell.EntireRow.Hidden = True

   ActiveCell.EntireRow.Hidden = False