Darryl Collins
Darryl.Collins at coles.com.au
Thu Jun 26 02:25:26 CDT 2008
Gustav, yeah, we have this sort of thing pop up from time to time with folks asking why things don't seem to add up correctly. Old timer Doug McNutt from Excel-L normally pipes up and puts folks right - not sure they all understand what he is saying thought. Doug is pretty passionate about the whole 'floating point' issue. Here is a some basic info on this that he provided a while back. http://www.excelyourbusiness.com.au/FormulaHelp.htm#FormulaGreaterThan15 that I thought was worth keeping for future reference. Actually the whole "I have a some 17 digit numbers that wont add up" also comes around a few times a year. cheers Darryl. -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com]On Behalf Of Gustav Brock Sent: Thursday, 26 June 2008 4:55 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. -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com This email and any attachments may contain privileged and confidential information and are intended for the named addressee only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender and delete this e-mail immediately. Any confidentiality, privilege or copyright is not waived or lost because this e-mail has been sent to you in error. It is your responsibility to check this e-mail and any attachments for viruses. No warranty is made that this material is free from computer virus or any other defect or error. Any loss/damage incurred by using this material is not the sender's responsibility. The sender's entire liability will be limited to resupplying the material. This email and any attachments may contain privileged and confidential information and are intended for the named addressee only. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender and delete this e-mail immediately. Any confidentiality, privilege or copyright is not waived or lost because this e-mail has been sent to you in error. It is your responsibility to check this e-mail and any attachments for viruses. No warranty is made that this material is free from computer virus or any other defect or error. Any loss/damage incurred by using this material is not the sender's responsibility. The sender's entire liability will be limited to resupplying the material.