weird issue in Excel sheet

I'm not able to import this one record to sql server 2000. It gives buffer limit exceeded. Why is it displaying characters like this? if i limit the characters开发者_运维问答 to 255 it's normal. I tried to simulate this like below.

Here is a sample file: http://sourcecodezone.com/test.xls

Open notepad. Create a small text within double quotes and paste in excel. Now double click that cell and add more characters so that it will cross 255. now you will see # symbols.

I tried changing the format to text. Now when you right click the cell and hit properties. it will show hashes again.

What property is this and how do i make it go back to normal? This record is just one example of millions of records i have to import.

In Excel 2003, you can have more than 255 characters in a cell but you can't set values or use the values from a cell that contains more than 255 cells.

You can use VBA to import your data that contains more than 255 characters by cell, something like:

Sub CutCell()
   Dim i as Integer
   Dim mytxt As String

   ' Create a string 1000 characters in length.
   mytxt = WorksheetFunction.Rept("test", 250)

   ActiveSheet.Shapes("Text Box 1").Select

   With Selection

      ' Initialize text in text box.
      .Text = ""
      For i = 0 To Int(Len(mytxt) / 255)
      .Characters(.Characters.Count + 1).Text = Mid(mytxt, (i * 255) + _
         1, 255)
      Next

   End With

End Sub

See microsoft documentation for more information about this.