[AccessD] Excel addition woes (was: Do While in VBA)

Hi Charlotte

Right, but Woody & Co. should know better than the average user of Excel.

This also shows, that perhaps MS should pay less attention to fancy no-value topics as ribbons, smarttags and so on, and focus on key issues like this. For example, Excel could (by default) pop a message first time you open a new WorkSheet: 

  Do you wish to switch from scientific numbers to financial numbers?
  Yes - No - Help

If the user answer Yes, default formatting would be set to decimal and two decimals.

/gustav

>>> cfoust at infostatsystems.com 26-06-2008 16:50 >>>
Sure, Gustav, but Excel is where people usually encounter floating point
errors for the first time, so they think of it as an Excel problem even
though we all know it isn't.  Newsletters like that tend to aim at the
lowest common denominator, as you know very well.

Charlotte Foust 

-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com 
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Gustav Brock
Sent: Wednesday, June 25, 2008 11:55 PM
To: accessd at databaseadvisors.com 
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Excel addition woes (was: Do While in VBA)

Hi Darryl

So do these lists express a consensus regarding Woody's recent stupid
"discovery" of a "bug" i Excel caused by floating point issues when
performing arithmetic?

First article is here:
http://news.office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?a=609 

I wrote Peter Deegan about this and how it can be demonstrated much
simpler:

<quote>
You are demonstration nothing but the extreme basics of floating number
handling by computers.
This has nothing to do with Excel, only the way the user misbehaves by
not applying the correct rounding (format).

In the attached worksheet you'll se that this "error" can be
demonstrated with two (2!) numbers only if a rounding of 16 decimals is
applied.
Contrary, your example will display correctly - as shown - if a format
of two decimals is applied.

The big error source regarding this topic is not Excel but the fact that
so many users do not know which tool they have at hand and how to
utilize it.
</quote>

You don't that many numbers as the article outlines. My attached Excel
sheet contained only two values and their sum (a true classic):

11,1100000000000000
-11,0100000000000000
0,0999999999999996

To be fair, Peter later moderated this to some "Excel addition woes" but
still named it "a strange Excel addition bug":

http://news.office-watch.com/t/n.aspx?a=618 

Thus, a lot of basic education about computers is still needed, so it
seems.

/gustav

>>> Darryl.Collins at coles.com.au 26-06-2008 02:44 >>>


If any of you have Excel issues, I highly recommend one of the Excel
lists here.  I have been subbed to both for years.

L list is for Developer type issues
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/excel-l.html 

G list is for more mundane Excel stuff.
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/excel-g.html 


Both lists are very friendly and full of MVP types who really know their
stuff.
Also lots of fun like AccessD, and of course, free to sub and unsub.

hth
Darryl.


-----Original Message-----
From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com 
[mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Steve Turner
Sent: Thursday, 26 June 2008 1:55 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: Re: [AccessD] Do While in VBA


SO simple thanks Rocky, none of the example's in the book or code had
that simple phrase  just End Sub after the loop phrase. I've sent emails
to two excel groups trying to find this answer and none replied. Access
d Is the greatest.