XL97: Defined Names Are Case Sensitive in Microsoft Excel 97 (160327)

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In Microsoft Excel, you can check the name of a defined name by using Visual Basic for Applications macro code similar to the following:

   MsgBox ThisWorkbook.Names(5).Name

   MsgBox ThisWorkbook.Names("test").Name
				

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:

   Sub TestName()

       MyArray = Array("test", "Test", "tEST", "TEST")
       For Each xName In MyArray
           ThisWorkbook.Names.Add Name:=xName, RefersTo:="5"
           MsgBox ThisWorkbook.Names("test").Name
       Next xName
 
   End Sub
				

The message boxes display different values, depending on the version of Microsoft Excel that you are using.

                  MsgBox Value in      MsgBox Value in
   Defined name   Microsoft Excel 97   Microsoft Excel 5.0, 7.0
   ------------------------------------------------------------
   test           test                 test
   Test           Test                 test
   tEST           tEST                 test
   TEST           TEST                 test
				

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:

   MsgBox ThisWorkbook.Names("test").Name = "test"
				

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:

   MsgBox UCase(ThisWorkbook.Names("test").Name) = UCase("test")