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They may seem like unusual numbers, but the do have a significance. Without getting into the real complexities of it, we can say that computers work on a system called Binary, relating to powers of 2. If you keep doubling up from 1, you will come through this list of numbers:

1

2

4

8

16

32

64

128

256

512

1024

2048

4096

8192

16384

32768

65536

131072

262144

524288

1048576

If you look into them, you will see that 256 is there, as is 65536. A lot of the other numbers that are there come up in other areas of computing. Computers often have 128 MB of memory or 512 MB of memory for example. The last number shown is the amount of rows in Excel 2007. If you continued doubling, you'd find other numbers that are in computers. If you multiply 256 by 65536 you get 16777216. Continuing the list from above you will get:

1048576

2097152

4194304

8388608

16777216

So you see there is a significance to 256 and 65536 and other numbers that you see sometimes in computers, that don't look particularly special.

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14y ago

Excel 2007 has a worksheet size 1,048,576 rows by 16,384 columns.

Excel 2000 is limited to 256, and Microsoft Works spreadsheet is 230 columns.

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Q: Why did Excel decide to use 256 and 65536 for the columns and rows?
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Related questions

How many rows and columns in Excel 2000?

In Excel 97 there were 256 columns and 65536 rows.


Number of rows in Microsoft Excel 2003?

There are 256 Columns and 65536 Rows in Excel 2003.


What is maximum number of columns available in Excel?

It depends which Spreadsheet program you're using. The maximums in Open Office are 65536 rows and 1024 columns. Microsoft Works limits you to 16383 rows and 282 columns.


Total number of column in Microsoft Excel?

The total number of columns in versions of Excel up to Excel 2003 is 256 columns. The total number of columns in Microsoft Excel 2007 and onwards is 16384. The total number of rows up to Excel 2003 is 65536. From Excel 2007 it is 1048576.


How can be more rows inserted after 65536 rows?

If the version of Excel you are using only has 65536 rows, which was the case up to Excel 2003, then you can't add any more rows. From Excel 2007 onwards there are 1048576 rows, so that is what you would need to use.


Why does Microsoft Excel have 65536 rows and 256 columns?

They may seem like random numbers, but they have a significance. If you double 2 so it is 4 and keep on doubling up, you will come to 256. If you continue to double you will come to 65536. This relates into powers of 2 or binary which is how computer memory is built. 2 4 8 16 32 64 128 256 512 1024 2048 4096 8192 16384 32768 65536 Excel 2007 has extended this further so that there are 65536 columns now and 1048576 rows: 65536 131072 262144 524288 1048576


How many rows and columns in Excel 2010?

There are 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns in Excel 2010


Are the rows and columns in Excel infinite?

No. In versions up to Excel 2003 there are 256 columns and 65,536 rows. From 2007 on, there are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows.


Why is there 65536 columns in Excel 2010 not showing 1048756 rows in Excel?

Excel 2010 has 1,048,576 rows. It relates to computers using binary. Many numbers are powers of 2 in computing. 65536 is 2 to the power of 16. In other words if you keep doubling up 2 you will come to 65536 as follows, like 2, 4, 8, 16 etc. Versions of Excel up to Excel 2003 had 65536 rows. All newer versions of Excel have even more rows, having 1,048,576. That is 2 to the power of 20.


How many rows and columns are there in Microsoft Excel 2000?

There are 256 Columns and 65,536 Rows in Excel 2000.


Each worksheet in a workbook has columns?

Adjusting and closing entries.


What is the total maximum cells worksheet in 2007?

There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.There are 16,384 columns and 1,048,576 rows which makes 17,179,869,184 cells in an Excel 2007 worksheet.