According to Microsoft, Excel rows have a limit of 1,048,576. This means that there is limited memory for every workbook to function well. The row limit can be affected, especially if the data you want to enter is more than 1,048,576. Some rows can also be excess, hence, there is a need to reduce them. This is possible by deleting some cells or hiding them.
Why Excel has Row Limit
1. Optimization
Excel uses locally generated resources, not resources from the cloud. The application handles only a small amount of data generated by humans. It is limited to the large worksheets from machine logs. Once you exceed the number of rows, the application performance becomes really slow.
2. General Use
The primary purpose of Excel was for general analysis. Over the years, it has improved, and you can now use it for any research. Excel is built to handle all cases of analysis, from financial and statistical to project management.
3. Excel is not a database.
Although Excel offers many database-like characteristics, it is not an actual database. That is why Microsoft has other databases like SQL Server or Access to handle the analysis of large amounts of data.
The rows in Excel may be too much for you. There are ways you can reduce this number to what you want. You can hide the rows you don’t want to show or limit the scrolling area.
How to get Past Excel Row Limit
You can get past Excel row limit by using Power Query. It can handle more than the limit. For Example look at how to add 10 Million rows in Excel using Power Query.
1. Open the excel sheet where you want to more than 1,048,576 rows
2. Click on the data tab>New Query>From Other sources> Blank Query
3. Type the following query to add 10 Million rows. You can adjust the number of rows according to your liking
={1..10000000}
4. Press enter and the rows will be loaded.
5. Convert the rows into a table
6. Click okay in the next pop-up
7. Convert the table to whole numbers so as to save on space
8. Click on close and load drop down then select “Close and load to”
9. Now on the next pop up select the following options and click load
- Only create connection
- Existing worksheet
- Add this data to the data model
10. Finally the 10 Million rows will be loaded
Hide Rows You Don’t want to show.
In a case where you don’t want to leave unnecessary rows, you can hide them. Follow the steps to guide you on how to hide these unwanted rows.
1. Select and highlight the rows you want to hide.
2. Right-click on the highlighted rows.
3. Click on the “hide option”.
4. Click “OK”.
Always note that the rows that are hidden you can unhide.
Limiting the Scrolling Area
When working with Excel, you may want to restrict scrolling the worksheet. Here are the steps to limit the scrolling area,
1. Select and activate the worksheet you want to limit the scroll area.
2. Hold the “ALT + F11” keys in order to open the Visual Basic for Application and click the “view> properties window option”.
3. On the properties window option, click on the “range address” in the scroll area property box.
4. Close the window, and you will have restricted any movement in any cells outside the range you selected.
Note that when you want to cancel the scroll area limit, you will have to delete the range address from the scroll area property box.
Ways to Increase Excel Row Limit
Even though there’s no specific formula for increasing the Excel row limit, there are some solutions to this problem. One most used solution is the use of the data model. You insert your data into the data model, and then you apply power to view or power pivot options. These options can handle more than 1048576 rows.
You can also insert new multiple sheets if your data is past the 1048576-row limit.
How to Insert a New Sheet in Excel
Adding a new sheet is the best way to increase the row limit in Excel. This means you will get an extra 1,048,576 rows and 16384 columns. Here are the steps:
1. Open your Excel Sheet
2. Click on the plus icon at the bottom of the sheet
3. Right-click on the sheet name and click rename
What is the Maximum row limit for a CSV file?
A CSV file does not have a row limit. The limit lies on the software that you use to open it with. For example on Google sheets, the maximum cell limit is 5,000,000 on Excel the Maximum row limit is 1,048,576. Text editors such as Vim, WordPad, and TextEdit have no row limits. Therefore, you can use them to open a CSV with more than 2 million rows.
