One File, Different File Sizes

[JeanKarl]

Good afternoon All:

Using Excel 2003 on XP - Using Java and an excel template, I create a very small table of data with no formulas or add-ons, basically, a simple, flat excel one sheet workbook.

I make the excel file available via a standard URL link on a web site.

Via IE:

1. If I right-click, Save As, the file size is saved as 23KB.
2. If I click the link, open the file and then perform a File-->Save As, the file size is saved as 18KB.
3. If I click the link, open the file and then perform a File-->Send as Attachment, the file size in the resulting email is 11KB.

Visually, the files are identical. I can open each one and there is nothing that is different with any of them.

By using a file-diff tool, I can see what appears to be differences in MS Header info.

Reason for asking, there is a an Excel Parser that takes this data and process the inforamtion. It recently failed to process the file properly and the only info I have been able to gather is that the file sizes between the working file and the non-working version were different.

Thank you, in advance, for any help you can give.

Regards,
JeanKarl

 

[BrianB]

... or, perhaps, the parser is not Excel based and misreads the non-standard header information.

An interesting discovery nonetheless.

In passing, (or parsing ) I use a text editor called "TextPad" that also enables binary files (like excel.exe or book1.xls) to be viewed/searched in a "raw" format which helped me write the macro here :-
http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1522012