Change formula

recalculation,
iteration, or
precision
Applies To: Excel 2007
To use formulas efficiently, there are three
important considerations that you need to
understand:
Calculation
is the process of computing
formulas and then displaying the results as
values in the cells that contain the formulas. To
avoid unnecessary calculations, Microsoft Office
Excel automatically recalculates formulas only
when the cells that the formula depends on
have changed. This is the default behavior when
you first open a workbook and when you are
editing a workbook. However, you can control
when and how Excel recalculates formulas.

Iteration
is the repeated recalculation of a
worksheet until a specific numeric condition is
met. Excel cannot automatically calculate a
formula that refers to the cell either directly
or indirectly that contains the formula. This is
called a circular reference. If a formula refers
back to one of its own cells, you must determine
how many times the formula should recalculate.
Circular references can iterate indefinitely.
However, you can control the the maximum
number of iterations and the amount of
acceptable change.
Precision
is a measure of the degree of
accuracy for a calculation. Excel stores and
calculates with 15 significant digits of precision.
However, you can change the precision of
calculations so that Excel uses the displayed
value instead of the stored value when it
recalculates formulas.

What do you want to do?

Change when a worksheet or workbook
recalculates
Recalculate a worksheet or workbook
manually by using keyboard shortcuts

Change the number of times Excel iterates a

formula
Change the precision of calculations in a
workbook
Change the number of processors used to
calculate formulas
Learn about calculating workbooks that were
created in an earlier version of Excel

Change when a worksheet

or workbook recalculates
As calculation proceeds, you can choose
commands or perform actions such as entering
numbers or formulas. Excel temporarily
interrupts calculation to carry out the other
commands or actions and then resumes
calculation. The calculation process may take
more time if the workbook contains a large
number of formulas, or if the worksheets contain
data tables or functions that automatically
recalculate every time the workbook is
recalculated. Also, the calculation process may
take more time if the worksheets contain links to
other worksheets or workbooks. You can control

when calculation occurs by changing the

calculation process to manual calculation.
1.
Click the Microsoft Office Button
click Excel Options, and then click
the Formulas category.
2.
o

Do one of the following:

To recalculate all dependent formulas

every time you make a change to a value,
formula, or name, in the Calculation
options section, under Workbook Calculation,
click Automatic. This is the default calculation
setting.
TIP: Alternatively, on the Formulas tab, in the Calculation group, click Calculation Options,

and then click Automatic.

To recalculate all dependent formulas

except data tablesevery time you make a
change to a value, formula, or name, in
the Calculation options section, under Workbook
Calculation, click Automatic except for data
tables.
TIP: Alternatively, on the Formulas tab, in the Calculation group, click Calculation Options,

and then click Automatic Except for Data Tables.

To turn off automatic recalculation and

recalculate open workbooks only when you
explicitly do so (by clicking Calculate
Now under Calculation Options in

the Calculation group on the Formulas tab), in

the Calculation optionssection, under Workbook
Calculation, click Manual.
NOTE: When you click Manual, Excel automatically selects the Recalculate workbook

before saving check box. If saving a workbook takes a long time, clearing Recalculate
workbook before saving may improve the save time.
TIP: Alternatively, on the Formulas tab, in the Calculation group, click Calculation Options,

and then click Manual.

To manually recalculate all open

worksheets, including data tables, and update all
open chart sheets, on the Formulastab, in
the Calculation group, click the Calculate
Now button.

To manually recalculate the active

worksheet and any charts and chart sheets linked
to this worksheet, on the Formulas tab, in
the Calculation group, click the Calculate
Sheet button.
Changing any of the options affects all open
workbooks.
NOTE: If a worksheet contains a formula that is linked to a worksheet that has not been

recalculated and you update that link, Excel displays a message stating that the source
worksheet is not completely recalculated. To update the link with the current value
stored on the source worksheet, even though the value might not be correct, click OK.
To cancel updating the link and use the previous value obtained from the source
worksheet, click Cancel.

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Recalculate a worksheet or
workbook manually by
using keyboard shortcuts
To

Press

Recalculate formulas that have changed

F9
since the last calculation, and formulas
dependent on them, in all open workbooks. If
a workbook is set for automatic recalculation,
you do not need to press F9 for recalculation.
Recalculate formulas that have changed
since the last calculation, and formulas
dependent on them, in the active worksheet.

SHIFT+F

Recalculate all formulas in all open

workbooks, regardless of whether they have
changed since last time or not.

CTRL+AL

Recheck dependent formulas, and then

recalculate all formulas in all open
workbooks, regardless of whether they have

CTRL+SH
F9

To

Press

changed since last time or not.

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Change the number of

times Excel iterates a
formula
1.
Click the Microsoft Office Button
click Excel Options, and then click
the Formulas category.

2.
In the Calculation options section, select
the Enable iterative calculation check box.
3.
To set the maximum number of times
Microsoft Excel will recalculate, type the number
of iterations in the Maximum Iterations box. The
higher the number of iterations, the more time
Excel will need to recalculate a worksheet.
4.
To set the maximum amount of change you
will accept between recalculation results, type
the amount in the Maximum Change box. The

smaller the number, the more accurate the

result and the more time Excel needs to
recalculate a worksheet.
NOTE: Solver and Goal Seek are part of a suite of commands sometimes called what-if

analysis tools. Both commands use iteration in a controlled way to obtain desired
results. You can use Solver when you need to find the optimum value for a particular cell
by adjusting the values of several cells or when you want to apply specific limitations to
one or more of the values in the calculation. You can use Goal Seek when you know the
desired result of a single formula but not the input value the formula needs to
determine the result.

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Change the precision of

calculations in a workbook
Before you change the precision of calculations,
keep in mind the following important points:
By default, Excel calculates stored, not
displayed, values
The displayed and printed
value depends on how you choose to format and
display the stored value. For example, a cell that
displays a date as "6/22/2008" also contains a
serial number that is the stored value for the
date in the cell. You can change the display of
the date to another format (for example, to "22Jun-2008"), but changing the display of a value
on a worksheet does not change the stored
value.

Use caution when changing the precision

of calculations
When a formula performs
calculations, Excel usually uses the values
stored in cells referenced by the formula. For
example, if two cells each contain the value
10.005 and the cells are formatted to display
values in currency format, the value $10.01 is
displayed in each cell. If you add the two cells
together, the result is $20.01 because Excel
adds the stored values 10.005 and 10.005, not
the displayed values.
When you change the precision of the
calculations in a workbook by using the
displayed (formatted) values, Excel permanently
changes stored values in cells from full precision
(15 digits) to whatever format, including decimal
places, is displayed. If you later choose to
calculate with full precision, the original
underlying values cannot be restored.
1.
Click the Microsoft Office Button
click Excel Options, and then click
the Advanced category.

2.
In the When calculating this
workbook section, select the workbook you
want, and then select the Set precision as
displayed check box.

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Change the number of

processors used to
calculate formulas
A computer can have more than one processor
(it contains multiple physical processors) or can
be hyperthreaded (it contains multiple logical
processors). On these computers, you can
improve or control the time it takes to
recalculate workbooks that contain many
formulas by setting the number of processors to
use for recalculation. In many cases, portions of
a recalculation workload can be performed
simultaneously. Splitting this workload across
multiple processors can reduce the overall time
it takes complete the recalculation.
1.
Click the Microsoft Office Button
click Excel Options, and then click
the Advanced category.

2.
To enable or disable the use of multiple
processors during calculation, in
the Formulas section, select or clear the Enable
multi-threaded calculation check box.

NOTE: This check box is enabled by default and all processors are used during

calculation. The number of processors on your computer is automatically detected and

displayed next to the Use all processors on this computer option.

3.
Optionally, if you select Enable multithreaded calculation, you can control the
number of processors to use on your computer.
For example, you might want to limit the
number of processors used during recalculation
if you have other programs running on your
computer that require dedicated processing
time.
o

How to control the number of processors

Under Number of calculation threads,

click Manual. Enter the number of processes to
use.
NOTE: The maximum number is 1024.

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Learn about calculating

workbooks that were
created in an earlier
version of Excel
To ensure that older workbooks are calculated
correctly, Excel behaves differently when you

first open an old workbook than when you open

a workbook created in the current version.
When you open a workbook created in the
current version, Excel recalculates only the
formulas that depend on cells that have
changed.
When you use open a workbook that was
created in an earlier version of Excel, all of the
formulas in the workbook those that depend
on cells that have changed and those that do
not are recalculated. This ensures that the
workbook is fully optimized for the current Excel
version.
Because complete recalculation can take longer
than partial recalculation, opening a workbook
that was not previously saved in the current
Excel version can take longer than usual. Once
you save the workbook in the current version, it
will open faster.