Anyone familiar with the RATE operator???

M

Mike

Per the helpfile, the PV value (another operator) is used
to calculate the RATE. However, you need the rate to
caculate the PV.

That's a circular reference and doesn't make sense to me
or my query.

What am I missing?

-Mike
 
J

John Spencer (MVP)

You are missing the fact that these are EXCEL functions and not Access functions.
 
M

Mike

Thanks for the input.

Do you know of an Access operator for this purpose? If
not, do you know any syntax that Access recogizes to do
Newton-Raphson calculations?
 
J

John Spencer (MVP)

No. I don't even have a clue what Newton-Raphson calculations are. I would
imagine it could be done with a custom vba function.
 
M

Michel Walsh

HI,


I doubt you can have both as unknown... Take a look at "See also",
under DDB Function entry in the help file (Access 2003), to get a list of
the "financial" functions. The Rate function uses an iteration because the
solution is not easily expressed in terms of simple algebra (like finding a
x value for which x^10 - 1.1*x = 1 ).


Clearly, it is a little bit like


F= ma


if you know m and a, you can conveniently compute F, but if you know F and
m, then


a= F/m


is more convenient. There is just one unknown at a time, it is not
"circular", it is "convenience". It is the same equation, re-written to
compute whatever is the (only) unknown, given a problem.



Hoping it may help,
Vanderghast, Access MVP
 
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