Excel Can't Add

  • Thread starter Charles H. Sampson
  • Start date
C

Charles H. Sampson

Does anybody know what can possibly go wrong with the formula

=SUM(D7:D23) ?

It was only by luck that I discovered that the value Excel came up for
this formula was wrong. Of course, now I wonder how many other mistakes
there are in a rather complicated spreadsheet. (Hint: It's a competitor
of TurboTax.) Do I have to check all calculations with my calculator?

I developed the spreadsheet using Word 2008. I've checked it
against Word 2011 and get the same wrong answer. I accept that the error
is likely mine but you'd think I should be able to see it easily with
such a simple formula.

Charlie
 
S

Salmon Egg

Does anybody know what can possibly go wrong with the formula

=SUM(D7:D23) ?

It was only by luck that I discovered that the value Excel came up for
this formula was wrong. Of course, now I wonder how many other mistakes
there are in a rather complicated spreadsheet. (Hint: It's a competitor
of TurboTax.) Do I have to check all calculations with my calculator?

I developed the spreadsheet using Word 2008. I've checked it
against Word 2011 and get the same wrong answer. I accept that the error
is likely mine but you'd think I should be able to see it easily with
such a simple formula.

Charlie

I do not understand the point of this post. Are you looking for help? If
so, you give very little information as to what your problem is.

--

Sam

Conservatives are against Darwinism but for natural selection.
Liberals are for Darwinism but totally against any selection.
 
P

Patty Winter

I do not understand the point of this post. Are you looking for help? If
so, you give very little information as to what your problem is.

His information seemed sufficient to me. A simple SUM formula
is not returning correct results. That's very odd indeed.


Patty
 
C

Charles H. Sampson

Salmon Egg said:
I do not understand the point of this post. Are you looking for help? If
so, you give very little information as to what your problem is.

What other information would you like? The SUM function is supposed
to add up 17 numbers and it gets the wrong value.

Taking a stab at what you might want: Some of the values are typed
in. Others are imported from elsewhere in the spreadsheet (using a
formula of the form =Name).

I do see one error. The two instances of "Word" should be replaced
with "Excel".

Charlie
 
S

Salmon Egg

What other information would you like? The SUM function is supposed
to add up 17 numbers and it gets the wrong value.

Taking a stab at what you might want: Some of the values are typed
in. Others are imported from elsewhere in the spreadsheet (using a
formula of the form =Name).

I do see one error. The two instances of "Word" should be replaced
with "Excel".

Charlie

=SUM(D7:D23)

can can cover up many sins. The OP does not give any real detail on what
the entries in "D7:D23" are. All that is implied rather than specific is
that somehow the were created in Word.

--

Sam

Conservatives are against Darwinism but for natural selection.
Liberals are for Darwinism but totally against any selection.
 
P

Patty Winter

[whole bunch of unneeded quotage deleted]

The OP does not give any real detail on what
the entries in "D7:D23" are. All that is implied rather than specific is
that somehow the were created in Word.


Charlie *is* the OP, and he just explained to you that he meant to say
"Excel" instead of "Word," so he did not create the entries in Word.


Patty
 
S

Salmon Egg

Patty Winter said:
[whole bunch of unneeded quotage deleted]

The OP does not give any real detail on what
the entries in "D7:D23" are. All that is implied rather than specific is
that somehow the were created in Word.


Charlie *is* the OP, and he just explained to you that he meant to say
"Excel" instead of "Word," so he did not create the entries in Word.


Patty

I must be denser than I thought. Would it be possible to get a sample
listing listing of formulas or values in "D7:D23" and the call using
"SUM(D7:D23)"? I do not know or even conceive how to check up on what is
happening without such information.

--

Sam

Conservatives are against Darwinism but for natural selection.
Liberals are for Darwinism but totally against any selection.
 
C

Charles H. Sampson

Salmon Egg said:
Patty Winter said:
[whole bunch of unneeded quotage deleted]

I do see one error. The two instances of "Word" should be replaced
with "Excel".

The OP does not give any real detail on what
the entries in "D7:D23" are. All that is implied rather than specific is
that somehow the were created in Word.


Charlie *is* the OP, and he just explained to you that he meant to say
"Excel" instead of "Word," so he did not create the entries in Word.


Patty

I must be denser than I thought. Would it be possible to get a sample
listing listing of formulas or values in "D7:D23" and the call using
"SUM(D7:D23)"? I do not know or even conceive how to check up on what is
happening without such information.

As time permits, I'm tryng to sanitize the spreadsheet, deleting
extraneous data so that it would be difficult to figure out what's
behind the numbers. As I expected, the error tends to disappear when
doing this. I haven't given up yet.

Thanks to all who have expressed an interest in this problem.

Charlie
 
P

Patty Winter

[extraneous quotage deleted]

As time permits, I'm tryng to sanitize the spreadsheet, deleting
extraneous data so that it would be difficult to figure out what's
behind the numbers. As I expected, the error tends to disappear when
doing this. I haven't given up yet.

Can you not tell us what's in cells D7 to D23 as "Salmon" asked?
Are they the results of formulas or directly entered numbers?


Patty
 
S

Salmon Egg

As time permits, I'm tryng to sanitize the spreadsheet, deleting
extraneous data so that it would be difficult to figure out what's
behind the numbers. As I expected, the error tends to disappear when
doing this. I haven't given up yet.

Thanks to all who have expressed an interest in this problem.

Charlie
-

If that is the case, what makes you sure that the problem, so to speak,
is with the airplane rather than the pilot?

--

Sam

Conservatives are against Darwinism but for natural selection.
Liberals are for Darwinism but totally against any selection.
 
C

Charles H. Sampson

Salmon Egg said:
If that is the case, what makes you sure that the problem, so to speak,
is with the airplane rather than the pilot?

Acknowledged in the original post.

Charlie
 
C

Charles H. Sampson

Patty Winter said:
[extraneous quotage deleted]

As time permits, I'm tryng to sanitize the spreadsheet, deleting
extraneous data so that it would be difficult to figure out what's
behind the numbers. As I expected, the error tends to disappear when
doing this. I haven't given up yet.

Can you not tell us what's in cells D7 to D23 as "Salmon" asked?
Are they the results of formulas or directly entered numbers?

If you're willing to spend more time on this, how can I refuse?

D7: Literal value
D8: Imported literal value
D9: Blank
D10: Imported calculated value
D11: Blank
D12: Blank
D13: Blank
D14: Imported calculated value
D15: Imported calculated value
D16: Blank
D17: Literal value
D18: Literal value
D19: Blank
D20: Blank
D21: Blank
D22: Imported calculated value
D23: Blank

"Literal value" means a value entered as a string of digits and a
decimal point.
"Calculated value" means a value involving at least one calculation.
"Imported" means coming from another worksheet (in this spreadsheet) by
a formula of the form =Name.

The amount of work I've been able to do so far points very strongly
to the value in D22 as being the culprit.

Charlie
 
C

Charles H. Sampson

I said:
Does anybody know what can possibly go wrong with the formula

=SUM(D7:D23) ?

It was only by luck that I discovered that the value Excel came up for
this formula was wrong. Of course, now I wonder how many other mistakes
there are in a rather complicated spreadsheet. (Hint: It's a competitor
of TurboTax.) Do I have to check all calculations with my calculator?

I developed the spreadsheet using Word 2008. I've checked it
against Word 2011 and get the same wrong answer. I accept that the error
is likely mine but you'd think I should be able to see it easily with
such a simple formula.

To absolutely nobody's amazement, the problem is mine. Here's a
brief explanation.

Elsewhere in this thread I gave a summary of the contents of the 17
cells in the sum. When I entered 54 into one of the blank cells, the
value of the sum went up by exactly 100. I was interested in the effect
this 54 would have in the sum, so I was staring intently at the cell
containing the sum. What I didn't notice was that another value of the
17 also changed by, would you believe it, 46. (These are all figures
that are carried to two decimal places.)

I blame it on psychology. The change of an even 100 was so striking
that I was transfixed by it. I think that if the change had been
something like 89.21 I wouldn't have been in such a hurry to jump to the
conclusion of an Excel problem. Maybe not.

The only outstanding question now is: Why did I think I had
verified the error using my calculator? My memory of exactly what I did
with the calculator is gone, so I'm not going to pursue that.

Again, many thanks to those elected to waste their time on what was
obviously a mistake on my part from the very beginning.

Charlie
 
S

Salmon Egg

To absolutely nobody's amazement, the problem is mine. Here's a
brief explanation.

Elsewhere in this thread I gave a summary of the contents of the 17
cells in the sum. When I entered 54 into one of the blank cells, the
value of the sum went up by exactly 100. I was interested in the effect
this 54 would have in the sum, so I was staring intently at the cell
containing the sum. What I didn't notice was that another value of the
17 also changed by, would you believe it, 46. (These are all figures
that are carried to two decimal places.)

I blame it on psychology. The change of an even 100 was so striking
that I was transfixed by it. I think that if the change had been
something like 89.21 I wouldn't have been in such a hurry to jump to the
conclusion of an Excel problem. Maybe not.

The only outstanding question now is: Why did I think I had
verified the error using my calculator? My memory of exactly what I did
with the calculator is gone, so I'm not going to pursue that.

Again, many thanks to those elected to waste their time on what was
obviously a mistake on my part from the very beginning.

Charlie

This is just one example of the inability or unwillingness of most
people to think scientifically or logically. While Microsoft has had
more than its share of bugs, it would be very surprising to find out
that simple addition has not been debugged by now.

One situation I ran into decades ago involved someone who was sure he
had found an error in Maxwell's equations. That is a theory that heavily
studied and central to our lives for over a century. The error was
traced back to the wrong sign in a commonly used optics book. This error
was corrected in a later edition.

Scientists love to find such discrepancies, if they are for real. It
gives them an opportunity for fame and fortune. Good scientists,
however, before making such claims, carefully examine their own work
before announcing or publishing. It is when they cut corners that s..t
happens.

The announcement of "cold fusion" was an extraordinary claim-- not fully
dead to this day. I have no idea how many millions or possibly billions
of dollars were spent tracking that down.

While adding numbers in a spreadsheet may not be so big a deal, it did
set off unneeded efforts. The main trouble with the original post was a
lack of any real data. That seems to be a common thread among self
deceptions.

--

Sam

Conservatives are against Darwinism but for natural selection.
Liberals are for Darwinism but totally against any selection.
 
C

Charles H. Sampson

Salmon Egg said:
This is just one example of the inability or unwillingness of most
people to think scientifically or logically. While Microsoft has had
more than its share of bugs, it would be very surprising to find out
that simple addition has not been debugged by now.

One situation I ran into decades ago involved someone who was sure he
had found an error in Maxwell's equations. That is a theory that heavily
studied and central to our lives for over a century. The error was
traced back to the wrong sign in a commonly used optics book. This error
was corrected in a later edition.

Scientists love to find such discrepancies, if they are for real. It
gives them an opportunity for fame and fortune. Good scientists,
however, before making such claims, carefully examine their own work
before announcing or publishing. It is when they cut corners that s..t
happens.

The announcement of "cold fusion" was an extraordinary claim-- not fully
dead to this day. I have no idea how many millions or possibly billions
of dollars were spent tracking that down.

While adding numbers in a spreadsheet may not be so big a deal, it did
set off unneeded efforts. The main trouble with the original post was a
lack of any real data. That seems to be a common thread among self
deceptions.

Try reading the original post closely. There was no self-deception
there ("I accept that the error is likely mine..."), just what turned
out to be an honest-to-gosh mistake, as I explained.

As to not submitting data with the original post, I had no idea of
what kind of data would be pertinent for such a crazy question. I even
doubted that anyone would bother to respond. Again, I thank those who
did so constructively.

Charlie
 
S

Salmon Egg

Try reading the original post closely. There was no self-deception
there ("I accept that the error is likely mine..."), just what turned
out to be an honest-to-gosh mistake, as I explained.

As to not submitting data with the original post, I had no idea of
what kind of data would be pertinent for such a crazy question. I even
doubted that anyone would bother to respond. Again, I thank those who
did so constructively.

The data I was looking for was a snippet of spreadsheet showing how, for
example, a column of numbers did and a formula for the sum of those
numbers were not equal. for A1:A4 being (1,2,3,r4) and =SUM(A1:A4)
yielding 11 as a result. If you included such an example, I would not
protest so much.

If you did try to send such information in the OP. my guess is you would
have solved your problem earlier. Sham on you for not doing so. Shame on
me for taking such a request seriously with no such data presented.

--

Sam

Conservatives are against Darwinism but for natural selection.
Liberals are for Darwinism but totally against any selection.
 
C

Charles H. Sampson

Salmon Egg said:
The data I was looking for was a snippet of spreadsheet showing how, for
example, a column of numbers did and a formula for the sum of those
numbers were not equal. for A1:A4 being (1,2,3,r4) and =SUM(A1:A4)
yielding 11 as a result. If you included such an example, I would not
protest so much.

If you did try to send such information in the OP. my guess is you would
have solved your problem earlier. Sham on you for not doing so. Shame on
me for taking such a request seriously with no such data presented.

I apologize for imposing on your valuable time. I suggest that you
put me into your killfile to prevent me from doing it again.

Again, I thank those who responded constructivly. I did not submit
numbers with the OP because I expected one of two responses: (1) You're
crazy, or (2) That's a known problem; in a really obscure circumstance
the SUM function fails. My expectation of (2) was extremely low.

Charli
 

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