Excel novices tend to surround themselves in different queries and one of them is How can you analyze 1M+ rows in Excel? Let’s dig out.

How Many Rows Can Excel Handle?

Well, an Excel spreadsheet can handle 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns at a time. Isn’t it enough for your data? Remember, if your data exceeds this number your file will not be opened and a message will pop up saying “File not loaded completely.” Also bear in mind that the number of rows and columns depends on the compatibility of your spreadsheet software version.

For instance, if you are using Excel 2013, the Excel row limit is 1,048,576, the Excel column limit is 16,384 XFD and the Excel cell limit is 17,179,869,184. Similarly, if you are using Excel 2019, 2016, or 2007, the number of cells, rows, columns, and individual sheets will vary accordingly.

Basically, all versions of Excel have three sheets in a new workbook by default. However, you can make as many sheets as your system memory permits. By default, these three sheets are named sheet 1, sheet 2, and sheet 3.

Rows in Excel spreadsheet are labeled with numbers such as 1 – 1,048,576 and columns are labeled with letters such as A – Z and then AA – ZZ, etc. The very next column of Z will be labeled as AA, AB, AC, AD, …, AZ, and then BA, BB, BC, etc. To discover a cell in the sheet, you will have to enter both the row and the column. For instance, A1 is a cell in which A is the column and 1 is the row.

Maximum Rows in Excel

As mentioned above, Excel deals with three worksheets in a single Workbook file having up to 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns of data. Depending on the computer memory, you can increase the number of worksheets for supplementary data. As per a general perspective, it is considered that the 32-bit version does not have enough power to handle more columns or rows as compared to 64-bit. What do you think about it?

Probably, it could be true to some extent; however, there is no fact as the Excel max rows and columns are dependent on the software version rather than the number of “BITS.” You may have to face some anonymous compatibility issues with 64-bit Excel while having larger size worksheets.

On the other hand, Excel does not care whether you have 32-bit or 64-bit as it strictly makes worksheets accessible to all copies and versions. To repeat, the system memory is responsible for the additional rows and columns in a worksheet.

If you want to know how many rows and columns you have in your sheet, you simply can check it quickly.

• Hold Ctrl + Down Arrow key at the same time and you will be directed to the last row. This way you will find out the exact number of rows.
• In the same way, you can find out the exact number of columns. Simply by pressing Ctrl + Right Arrow key and you will be directed to the last column.

People also want to know the maximum number of characters in a single cell. Well, a cell can wrap 32,767 characters easily. As mentioned earlier, the file having more than the limited number of rows and columns, will not be loaded completely. And for this, you will need some explanation, such as:

• Exceeding the Excel row limit and column limit can drag you into trouble. To fix this issue, you need a text editor to open the source file. Now once the file is opened, save the source file as different smaller files that let your files be compatible with the limited number of rows and columns.
• Eventually, you can open the file into MS Excel. In case, if your source data is unable to open in any text editor, you can shift the data into MS Access. After importing the file, now you need to export subsets of the data from MS Access to MS Excel.

Another interesting query is that how to deal with one million-plus rows in Excel? As you already know that Excel has 1,048,567 rows, however, it does not show that you cannot work with data that needs more than a million rows in Excel.

Basically, you need Data Model to add more than a million rows and columns.

Extend Your Worksheet Capacity with Data Model

No matter what amount of data you want to handle, the Excel data model gives you the freedom to handle any amount of data. With Excel Data Model, you can store and evaluate data without the need to peek in every time. It was started in Excel 2013 and it minimizes many issues that people face during importing and exporting the data in Excel.

Data Model is a sort of search engine that answers your queries whenever you ask something. Do you know where does Data Model exists?

Rather than spreadsheets, this model lies in your computer system and there is no limitation of one million rows. Any amount of data can be dealt with in this model. However, both the memory of your system and computer processor mutually determine the performance and speed of the model.

How to Open Larger Data Sets in the Model?

Having a larger data set can put you in trouble, that’s where you need this data model. You can divide the larger files into smaller ones to load completely.

If your file is larger than the maximum number of rows and columns, you will surely find a message saying the “File not loaded completely.”

Click the OK button and move to the last row by pressing Ctrl + Down Arrow key. Check if the worksheet is filled till the end or not.

Open Large CSV

Opening larger files directly in Excel is not possible that’s why you need to make a connection to a CSV file. It simply works by loading data into the Data Model and it helps maintain the link to the original CSV file. That way you can load whatever the amount of file.

That’s it!

You fully understand how many rows can Excel handle along with columns and cells and how can you analyze 1M+ rows in Excel. Practicing these tricks can help you a lot.