Numbers Help request!

[welders4mac]

Hello All!

I have bought iwork08. I was using Neo Office.

I do have a question.
If I try to take the results of two Columns and then add them together I get a rather strange result.

Ie: the Sum of Column A is 2500 and the sum of Column B is -2500 my Answer should be 0. However in Numbers its something along the lines of -0.0000000002

It gets even worse if the answer should be a negative number, as the result looks more like a scientific equation.

any help would be splendid, thank you

 

[Mac In School]

Can you post a screencap? If so, have the bad results column selected when you take it, and make sure we can see the formula bar.

 

[NAG]

You sure you don't have any of the columns rounded off?

 

[welders4mac]

Hows this?
Thanks again!

 

[Mac In School]

Hard to tell without seeing what's in row 68, but it does look strange. Do you really have stuff all the way down in row 68, or is that a typo?

 

[exegete77]

Are the numbers entered by hand or generated somewhere else?

My guess on the running total is that the precision is greater than value entered.

 

[welders4mac]

Hard to tell without seeing what's in row 68, but it does look strange. Do you really have stuff all the way down in row 68, or is that a typo?

Yes there is data to row 68. I have in the past (open office) have had to row 125 even though There was nothing there, I just enter the information as I use my credit card. Running Balance

I have seen online a few templates for Credit Cards and numbers, I must say it is much more involved than I am used too!. Im sure VisiCalc would do me fine LOL

anyhow Ill keep tinkering away. Probably learn via the templates I come upon.

Thanks People!

 

[sickmacdoc]

Yes there is data to row 68. I have in the past (open office) have had to row 125 even though There was nothing there, I just enter the information as I use my credit card. Running Balance

I have seen online a few templates for Credit Cards and numbers, I must say it is much more involved than I am used too!. Im sure VisiCalc would do me fine LOL

anyhow Ill keep tinkering away. Probably learn via the templates I come upon.

Thanks People!

OK- one question for you before you lose your mind (as I did years ago with some of the wierdness in Excel).

Does the absurd representation of the number in B1 change if you change the cell format in at least c6 and d6 to "currency" (with the cell inspector tab in the inspector)? If, not does it them make any difference there if you then change B1 to "currency"?

It would appear that somehow B1 has gotten it's format changed to show a BUNCH of places beyond the decimal point rather than the two place standard for currency. A side benefit to changing the format to currency would be that it would display dollar signs and commas in appropriate places.

Give that a shot as I have a feeling it might well take care of the problem.

Good luck!

 

[welders4mac]

OK- one question for you before you lose your mind (as I did years ago with some of the wierdness in Excel).

If, not does it them make any difference there if you then change B1 to "currency"?
Give that a shot as I have a feeling it might well take care of the problem.

Good luck!

That did the trick, mind you I have -$0.00 which I guess is just as good as +$0.00, but now when I add an item it looks the way it should.

...does seem weird though. A simple calculation and I get a weird answer.
Its not like there is a floating point error with CPU's these days. Especially when the computation is only in the hundreds rather than Trillions.

 

[sickmacdoc]

That did the trick, mind you I have -$0.00 which I guess is just as good as +$0.00, but now when I add an item it looks the way it should.

...does seem weird though. A simple calculation and I get a weird answer.
Its not like there is a floating point error with CPU's these days. Especially when the computation is only in the hundreds rather than Trillions.

Don't worry- it get weirder! When I entered your numbers in a test sheet even BEFORE formatting as currency, it displayed 0 correctly!

With that in mind, I suggested the currency formatting as your results reminded me of an Excel problem from many moons back.

At any rate, glad it worked- for the most part!