Finding the Size of Individual Worksheets

Maarten wonders if there is a way to find out the size of each worksheet in a workbook. He has a workbook with almost 100 worksheets, and he wants to reduce the size of the workbook file. However, he doesn't know which worksheets are the biggest ones in size.

Figuring out the "size" of individual worksheets depends, in large part, on what is meant by "size." Does it mean the number of cells used? The columns and rows used? How much text is stored in the worksheet? The list of metrics could go on and on.

The problem is that questions such as these miss the mark; a worksheet can have many, many items stored on it. For instance, it could contain comments, formulas, text, charts, sound files, and any number of other items. One chart may be larger than another in terms of numbers of cells, but the other could be larger in terms of objects (such as charts or PivotTables).

The only real way to compare relative sizes of worksheets is to save each worksheet out into its own workbook and then examine the size of each resulting workbook. This obviously doesn't answer precisely how large each individual worksheet is because the act of saving a workbook introduces additional overhead into the saved file. However, if each worksheet is saved in the same way, each one will have comparable overhead and thus can be compared to each other to see which is larger.

The following macro adds a worksheet to the current workbook in order to record the sizes of each workbook created. It then steps through each worksheet and saves it into an individual workbook. The size of the workbook is then determined, recorded, and the new workbook deleted.

Sub WorksheetSizes()
    Dim wks As Worksheet
    Dim c As Range
    Dim sFullFile As String
    Dim sReport As String
    Dim sWBName As String

    sReport = "Size Report"
    sWBName = "Erase Me.xls"
    sFullFile = ThisWorkbook.Path & _
      Application.PathSeparator & sWBName

    ' Add new worksheet to record sizes
    On Error Resume Next
    Set wks = Worksheets(sReport)
    If wks Is Nothing Then
        With ThisWorkbook.Worksheets.Add(Before:=Worksheets(1))
            .Name = sReport
            .Range("A1").Value = "Worksheet Name"
            .Range("B1").Value = "Approximate Size"
        End With
    End If
    On Error GoTo 0
    With ThisWorkbook.Worksheets(sReport)
        .Select
        .Range("A1").CurrentRegion.Offset(1, 0).ClearContents
        Set c = .Range("A2")
    End With

    Application.ScreenUpdating = False
    ' Loop through worksheets
    For Each wks In ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets
        If wks.Name <> sReport Then
            wks.Copy
            Application.DisplayAlerts = False
            ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs sFullFile
            ActiveWorkbook.Close SaveChanges:=False
            Application.DisplayAlerts = True
            c.Offset(0, 0).Value = wks.Name
            c.Offset(0, 1).Value = FileLen(sFullFile)
            Set c = c.Offset(1, 0)
            Kill sFullFile
        End If
    Next wks
    Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11112) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Finding the Size of Individual Worksheets.