>You're asking the wrong question to Excel. You don't actually want the value
>of every cell in column 4 of the worksheet: in Excel 2008, worksheets now
>have 65,635 rows! That's why you get the spinning beachball - it's going
>through all 65,353 cells in column 4.
>
>What you want is just the *filled* cells. That's not difficult at all; the
>'used range' property of sheet gets you exactly that, immediately. You don't
>have to count the filled rows either, or know in advance how many there are.
>
>     value of column 4 of used range of active sheet
>
--> "missing value"

Oops. Dyslexia.  I typed

value of used range of column 4 of active sheet.  The other way around works.
-- 

Bill Steele
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