The Microsoft Excel File Format - OpenOffice.org

4.10 Internal and External References
• External Names
In Excel, formulas can use defined names located in another workbook, called “external names”. The definitions for
external names are stored in a combination of EXTERNSHEET Sheet Blocks and EXTERNSHEET Document Blocks.
The EXTERNSHEET Sheet Blocks contain the source document and sheet names the external names are located in, and
the cached cell contents. Following a single EXTERNSHEET Document Block that only contains the source document
name and the external name definitions themselves. This is repeated for each external document.
Inside of a formula an external name is represented by the token tNameX (➜3.9.14). It contains the one-based index to
the EXTERNSHEET record (of the EXTERNSHEET Document Block) and a one-based index to an EXTERNALNAME
record inside this block. Each EXTERNALNAME record refers to a preceding EXTERNSHEET record containing the
sheet name.
Example: A document contains the formulas
=example.xls!GlobalName (location: ExtSheet3!C33; contents: 33),
=[example.xls]ExtSheet3!LocalName (location: ExtSheet1!B22; contents: “ABCD”),
=[example.xls]ExtSheet1!LocalName (location: ExtSheet1!A11; contents: 11), and
=another_example.xls!GlobalName (location: ExtSheet2!B2; contents: 2).
The Local Link Table of Sheet1 contains two EXTERNSHEET Sheet Blocks followed by an EXTERNSHEET
Document Block for the document “example.xls”; and one EXTERNSHEET Sheet Block and one EXTERN-
SHEET Document Block for the document “another_example.xls”:
EXTERNCOUNT Number of EXTERNSHEET records = 5
EXTERNSHEET 1
XCT Number of CRN = 2
Name = “[example.xls]ExtSheet1”
CRN 0 Cell range = A11, contents = 11
CRN 1
EXTERNSHEET 2
Cell range = B22, contents = “ABCD”
XCT Number of CRN = 1
Name = “[example.xls]ExtSheet3”
CRN 0 Cell range = C33, contents = 33
EXTERNSHEET 3
EXTERNALNAME 1
Name = “example.xls”
Name = “GlobalName”, EXTERNSHEET = 0 (global),
Formula = “=[example.xls]ExtSheet3!C33”
EXTERNALNAME 2 Name = “LocalName”, EXTERNSHEET = 2,
Formula = “=[example.xls]ExtSheet1!B22”
EXTERNALNAME 3 Name = “LocalName”, EXTERNSHEET = 1,
Formula = “=[example.xls]ExtSheet1!A11”
EXTERNSHEET 4
XCT Number of CRN = 1
Name = “[another_example.xls]ExtSheet2”
CRN 0 Cell range = B2, contents = 2
EXTERNSHEET 5
EXTERNALNAME 1
Name = “another_example.xls”
Name = “GlobalName”, EXTERNSHEET = 0 (global),
Formula = “=[another_example.xls]ExtSheet2!B2”
All formulas in the example above contain the token tNameXV.
The tokens of the first three formulas refer to EXTERNSHEET 3 (the EXTERNSHEET Document Block of
“example.xls”). Each token refers to the respective EXTERNALNAME record following this EXTERNSHEET
record. For instance, the third formula refers to EXTERNALNAME 3 which contains the name “LocalName”
and refers to EXTERNSHEET 1. EXTERNSHEET 1 is used to obtain the sheet name of the external name. The
name is completed to “[example.xls]ExtSheet1!LocalName”.
The tNameXV token of the last formula refers to EXTERNSHEET 5 (the EXTERNSHEET Document Block of
“another_example.xls”). Because EXTERNSHEET 5 describes a global external name, the name is directly
completed to “another_example.xls!GlobalName”.
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