XL98: No Warning Appears If You Use Incorrect Data Validation Setting (180369)

SYMPTOMS

If you use data validation in Microsoft Excel to specify that a cell value must be between two numbers, and you incorrectly set maximum and minimum values, an error message that indicates the setting is incorrect may fail to appear.

CAUSE

This problem occurs when the following conditions are true:

You set maximum and minimum values for a range of valid values in the Data Validation dialog box (click Validation on the Data menu). -and-
The values you specify in the Minimum and Maximum boxes are references to other cells that contain values that are not valid.

Example

To see an example of this behavior, enter 1 in cell A1 and 10 in cell A2, select cell A3, and then click Validation on the Data menu. Select the following data validation settings for cell A3, and then click OK.

   Setting    Value
   -------------------------------------------------------------

   Allow:     Whole Number (or Decimal, Date, Time, Text length)
   Data:      between
   Minimum:   =A2
   Maximum:   =A1

Note that you do not receive an error message that indicates the maximum value must be greater than the minimum value.

If you specify 10 in the Minimum box and 1 in the Maximum box, you receive the following error message:

The Maximum must be greater than or equal to the Minimum.

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.

REFERENCES

For more information about data validation, click the Index button in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

data validation, adding restrictions

click Show Topics, and then double-click "Types of data restrictions" in the list of topics.