Why on earth can't Excel handle 2 files with the same name? [closed]

Answer 1

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YES YOU CAN!!! (But I think this is an Excel bug)

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Try this:

1. On your Desktop right click and choose "New" => "Microsoft Excel worksheet".
2. Rename the file to "Test[1].xlsx" (the name is important!)
3. Now create a now folder on the desktop and paste a copy of the file "Test[1].xlsx" into it
4. Open both "Test[1].xlsx" via double click: Et voilà!

Now the two (same named) workbooks are open in Excel. But if you look into there "Workbook.Name"-Properties, it gets even more strange, because internally they are both renamed to "Test(1).xlsx".

That's because Excel does need the special characters "[]" internally for its formulas.

So they are (normally) not allowed for a workbook name, but a workbook which is named "Test[1].xlsx" externally can be opened anyway, what is a bug for me!

Why? Because you really get into trouble as a programmer if you want to address both of this workbooks by using "Application.Workbooks[name]", which does not fail, but delivers always the first one found by this name!

Jörg