International Bug in Excel Solver

[Guest]

I'm using the Excel Solver in an application that we have developed.
However, there appears to be a bug in the solver handling the international
settings in Excel (2003).

If you change the decimal and thousands separator in Tools->Options
(International) to something other than the system separators, the solver
will fail with the error "Error in model. Please verify that all cells and
constraints are valid.".

I first noticed this on a non-English WinXP system running English Excel
2003. The user had changed the settings in Excel to display floating point
numbers as they would in English. However, the same problem can occur in
English systems if you change the decimal separator to "," and the thousands
separator to "." as in many non-English locales.

Is there any way around this problem without forcing the user to use
international settings he does not desire to make?

Sincerely,

Michael

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

Solver is an addin developed by Front Line Systems

You can contact them at their web site:

http://www.solver.com/

Perhaps Microsoft didn't coordinate the advanced feature you describe and
introduced in xl2002 with them.

 

[Guest]

I understand that, but Microsoft distributes it so it's their problem to get
it resolved. I am not a Front Line Systems customer.

Your car has many "addins" from different manufacturers but I bet you do not
go to those manufacturers when one of their components fails...

Michael

 

[Tom Ogilvy]

And I don't go to a streer corner and talk about it to get it fixed either.
An equally apt analogy.

My thought was that fontline systems might already have a solution for you
or direct you to the right place at Microsoft. You can pay for support from
Microsoft and take a chance that they won't charge you. In any event if
your intent is to advise Microsoft of the problem, posting here about this
problem won't get you much unless you have some type of support agreement
with Microsoft.