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2.2.1.1 Retrieval of Last-Calculated Cell Values Without Loading Cell Table

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The only way to retrieve formulas, formats and other cell data is to read the cell table normally as defined previously. However, in certain situations (for example when resolving external references to values) it is beneficial to retrieve only the last calculated value from a cell, without actually loading the cell table. For this reason, a binary index exists within the file that specifies data used to improve the performance of a random read access to the cell table (section 2.2.1) data in a worksheet (section 2.1.7.62) part or macro sheet (section 2.1.7.32) part. To find a position of a particular cell within a file, an application can perform the following steps:

  1. Open the worksheet binary index (section 2.1.7.63) part or the macro sheet binary index part (section 2.1.7.33) that corresponds to the sheet to which the cell belongs.

  2. Read BrtIndexBlock (section 2.4.689) records to find one such that the zero-based cell row is greater than or equal to rwMic and less than rwMac.

  3. If no such BrtIndexBlock record exists, then the row has no data or formatting.

  4. Read a BrtIndexRowBlock (section 2.4.692) record that immediately follows this BrtIndexBlock record, and compute the data offset according to the description of the BrtIndexRowBlock record.

  5. Open the corresponding Worksheet part (section 2.1.7.62) or macro sheet part (section 2.1.7.32).

  6. Read cell table (section 2.2.1) data starting from the previously computed position to find the cell record for the target cell.

  7. If the end of the row in the cell table (section 2.2.1) or a record whose column (1) is greater than the column (1) of the target cell is reached, then the cell is blank and has no formatting.