Unable to assign formula to cell range in Excel

Question

Someone else's code in the project, that I am trying to fix up.

listO.Range(i, j).FormulaR1C1 = FormulaMatrix(i, j)

where FormulaMatrix(i, j) is always a String value. Whatever random/test value, I try with, is being assigned successfully, except when it is a formula, eg.

=IF(LENGTH([@Units])>0;[@SalesAmount]-[@DiscountAmount]0)

If I remove the = sign in the beginning of the formula, it gets assigned correctly, but then it's useless, because it's not a formula.

@Units, @SalesAmount, @DiscountAmount are references/names of columns.

So, when assigning a formula, I get an exception HRESULT: 0x800A03EC. I looked up in this answer in order to get explanation and followed some of the instructions there. I determined that my problem is the following: the problem happens due to a function entered in a cell and it is trying to update another cell.

Checked out also this post. I tried quite different (like putting just the formulas without = and then run over again and put the equal signs), but same problem.

I am clueless of how to approach this.

Answer 1

.formulalocalworks! (While .formula, .value and .formular1c1 don't.)

I've just started working with VB.NET and came into a very similar issue. This was my simplified data at first (Table1 in Sheet1):

Then after applying the code below I had this:

The whole code for the form:

Imports Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel

Public Class Form1
    '~~> Define your Excel Objects
    Dim xlApp As New Excel.Application
    Dim xlWorkBook As Excel.Workbook
    Dim xlWorkSheet As Excel.Worksheet
    Dim strAddress As String = "C:\Temp\SampleNew.xlsx"
    Dim list1 As Object


    Private Sub btnOpen_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnOpen.Click
        '~~> Add a New Workbook (IGNORING THE TWO DOT RULE)
        xlWorkBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Open(strAddress)

        '~~> Display Excel
        xlApp.Visible = True

        '~~> Set the relevant sheet that we want to work with
        xlWorkSheet = xlWorkBook.Sheets("Sheet1")

        With xlWorkSheet

            '~~> Change the range into a tabular format
            list1 = .ListObjects("Table1")

        End With

        list1.range(2, 4).formulalocal = "=IF(LEN([@Month])>5;[@Income]-[@MoneySpent];0)"

        '~~> Save the file
        xlApp.DisplayAlerts = False
        xlWorkBook.SaveAs(Filename:=strAddress, FileFormat:=51)
        xlApp.DisplayAlerts = True

        '~~> Close the File
        xlWorkBook.Close()

        '~~> Quit the Excel Application
        xlApp.Quit()

        '~~> Clean Up
        releaseObject(xlApp)
        releaseObject(xlWorkBook)
    End Sub


    '~~> Release the objects
    Private Sub releaseObject(ByVal obj As Object)
        Try
            System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(obj)
            obj = Nothing
        Catch ex As Exception
            obj = Nothing
        Finally
            GC.Collect()
        End Try
    End Sub
End Class

@Siddharth Rout helped a lot to build this code, as he owns this awesome site: http://www.siddharthrout.com/

Answer 2

The error might be coming from your current data, respectively, the layout of the sheet. I would suggest you to check what is inside the listO.Range(i, j).FormulaR1C1 before you assign the formula.

I have had a case where the range has already got wrong data inside, and then strangely, I don't know why, I cannot assign the new formula.

If that is the case - try clearing the value of the range and then assigning the formula:

listO.Range(i, j).FormulaR1C1 = ""
listO.Range(i, j).FormulaR1C1 = FormulaMatrix(i, j)