Efficient Calculations - which option is better

[floored]

I'm building a spreadsheet which is fed a series of data from another spreadsheet. The same data is reused several times within the file I'm building. I'm not entirley sure how Excel stores linked values. Does Excel look up a cell reference 1x's and store that as a variable which it recalls as needed, or does it look the reference up everytime it encounters the same reference?

The follow-up question :

Is it better to have each reference in my document link to the same cell in the external document, or am I better (from a calculation standpoint) to have one external link to that cell and have all the other cells in my file point to the cell with that external link. Which will take less calculation power from Excel?

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Chitosunday]

You can choose excel how to calculate by going to tools, options, calculations, then choose either automatic or manual.
In automatic calculation, it recalculates everytime you change the dependent cell. In manual , it only recalculates when you press f9. If you save or open a file, it recalculates whether you are in manual mode or not.

For your second question, which is best to have several cells link to external files or only one cells, i am not sure but i think one link to external is better than many links.

 

[floored]

hmm... guess I didn't phrase my question properly. My concern is about how to maximize the efficiency of a power spreadsheet.

I have maybe 10 different references to an external excel file. I use each of the ten data points at least 10-25 times each. These links need to be dynamic as the source file is updated monthly. I'm trying to figure out how to configure my reporting file to minimize file size and the calculation time. Is it better to have 1 link for each of these 10 references and have all my subsequent uses of the data point to the link which is internal to my file, or should they all point to the external file. If Excel stores external link values as a variable related to the cell reference, I am assuming that the second option would actually be more efficient. The problem is I don't know for certain if that is how excel handles external links.

 

[Chitosunday]

Made a test linking just cell "a1" of external source file to destination file then copy the reference internally from column a to k of the destination file. The process just took me about 1 minute. I closed the two workbooks.

Then i tried creating a new one with links to cell "a1" of external source file with all my cells from column a to k. My computer hanged after that.

Final Verdict, the more external link, the greater the process.
Better to link one external link and then reference internally .