Vlookup Head Scratcher

[DPChristman]

This is just an odd occurrence, and I was wondering if anyone can explain this to me.

i was working on a formatted excel document for work. The document has a number of auto-populated fields, pulled from excel files on my company's network drives.

I am not dealing with what I would call even intermediate users when it comes to the people using this form. It was meant to take all the guesswork out. However, some people were still having issues using it.

I decided to create a tutorial that they could watch, and it would answer all their questions, using Free Studio's Free Screen Video Recorder to capture all the steps in the document.

The problem is that my company won't let me install 'unapproved' software on my computer. So, I emailed myself the spreadsheet to do it on my home computer.

Sorry for all the backstory, but there is a reason.

I started to create the step by step tutorial and was (pleasantly) surprised to see that all the auto-population fields were working, even though the source data was 150 miles away, on a computer I was not connected to the time. When I looked at the cells, the initial formulas were still intact, referencing a location I had no access to. I would have expected this to create errors, but it didn't. I closed and reopened the document several times, searching different data (basically trying to break the formula), and it worked every time.

Can anyone explain why this worked. Everything I know about excel (granted, i am not an expert) tells me is should have worked at all.

 

[mole999]

The are cache that get created with pivots, that unless you explicitly ensure they are wiped do travel with the files. Somewhere you have a cache

 

[DPChristman]

I did not use pivot tables (not a fan), if that's what you mean. Just vlookups. I figured there would be some sort of cached data carryover, but it is odd that I have since opened, closed, restarted, etc, and it still auto-pops. Not that I am complaining.