Attach one.  Include the minimum source necessary to reproduce the problem.

Created attachment 4050 [details]
Excel sheet containing formula 'Offset' and size of 35 rows

Created attachment 4051 [details]
Java program for parsing sheet "Test.xls"

Created attachment 4393 [details]
Excel file, three sheets with text references in different rows

Hello,

I use jakarta-poi-1.9.0-dev-20021107 and encountered a similar problem: Each 
reference (=A1) leads to a wrong result of row.getLastRowNum(), if the 
referenced cell contains String data. The returned length of the sheet depends 
on the row in which the =reference was placed.

I send you some code and a Workbook, to demonstrate the mysteria: Sheet1 one has 
99 rows an Text in B1, sheets2 & 3 are also 99 rows long but have a reference to 
sheet1!B1 in B31/B32 (row numbering 0-based). As you will see the barrier 
seems to be always n*32 ...

If you need some more information, please contact me.
Have a good time,

Volker

===============================
Here's the very basic sample code:
(the referenced excel-sheet is Attachment #4393 [details])
(The sample output follows after)

public static void poiFehler() {
	try {

		POIFSFileSystem fs = new POIFSFileSystem(new 
FileInputStream("C:\\tmp\\Mappe1.xls"));
       		 HSSFWorkbook wb = new HSSFWorkbook(fs);
		int x;
		int realLen=98;
		
		HSSFSheet sheet = wb.getSheet("Tabelle1");
		x = sheet.getLastRowNum();
		System.out.println("Tabelle1: Length="+realLen+", no 
String-reference");
		System.out.println("POI-LastRowNum="+x);
		if(realLen==x) System.out.println("OK");
		else System.out.println("BUG!!");
		System.out.println();

		System.out.println("Tabelle2: Length="+realLen+", 
String-reference in row 31 (or before)");	
		sheet = wb.getSheet("Tabelle2");
		x = sheet.getLastRowNum();		
		System.out.println("POI-LastRowNum="+x);
		if(realLen==x) System.out.println("OK");
		else System.out.println("BUG!!");
		System.out.println();

		System.out.println("Tabelle3: Length="+realLen+", 
String-reference in row 32 (or behind)");	
		sheet = wb.getSheet("Tabelle3");
		x = sheet.getLastRowNum();		
		System.out.println("POI-LastRowNum="+x);
		if(realLen==x) System.out.println("OK");
		else System.out.println("BUG!!");
		System.out.println();
		    
	} catch (IOException e) {
					
		System.out.println("IO-Exc.");
	}
		
}

------------------------------------------------

OUTPUT:
Tabelle1: Length=98, no String-reference
POI-LastRowNum=98
OK

Tabelle2: Length=98, String-reference in row 31 (or before)
POI-LastRowNum=31
BUG!!

Tabelle3: Length=98, String-reference in row 32 (or behind)
POI-LastRowNum=63
BUG!!

Created attachment 4502 [details]
patch file to add string handling

The attachment should patch this problem.
The problem was the loading loop was ending when it ran into Strings at row 32.
There is similar code in the Cell loading loop which ignores strings, and
this appears to work for all spreadsheets that I have tried.

so explain this patch to me.  How will this work given a normal sheet with
string records which just need to be converted to LabelSST

As far as I can tell the only function that this function performs is setting up
the list of  rowrecords --
with regards to the LabelSST - it was never done here. This function actually
has three section, only two of which ever had an
effect.
        The first section simply set and created a object that was never used.
             if (rec instanceof LabelSSTRecord) {
                LabelSSTRecord new_name = (LabelSSTRecord) rec;
                //System.out.println("Row for LabellSST: " + new_name.getRow());
            }

    The second breaks the loop under certain circumstances:
         if (rec instanceof StringRecord == false && !rec.isInValueSection() &&
!(rec instanceof UnknownRecord))
            {
                //System.out.println("Record is of type: " + rec.getClass());
            //    StringRecord r = (StringRecord)rec;
            //    System.out.println("String:" + r.getString());
                break;
            }

The third ( the most important one), check to see if this is a RowRecord, and if
so, adds new a new row.
          if (rec.getSid() == RowRecord.sid)
            {
                insertRow(( RowRecord ) rec);
                RowRecord row = (RowRecord)rec;
            //    System.out.println("Row:" + row.getRowNumber());

            }

Hi and thanks!
The patch works fine with my cases. Thanks for the quick help.
Do I get a message, if and when this patch is included in a upcomming release? 
Volker

Created attachment 5833 [details]
Cleaner patch against current CVS

The above patch is just a cleaned up version of the one already attached to this
bug. As you can see it is just a one line fix.

The patch does fix the problem I was encountering (sheet says it only has 32
rows), but I can't make any claims as to if it is theoretically correct.

Im going to commit this tonight.

Fixed root of the problem that all the rows weren't being aggregated and
committed fix.  Please verify! And thanks for the bug report and debugging.