DSum not recognising criteria correctly

[Sue]

I am using Excel 2000 and have the following formula in a cell:
=DSUM(CRData,7,acd)
Unfortunately to get the right answer I have to put:
=DSUM(CRData,7,acd)-DSUM(CRData,7,acdiv)

Why does Excel sum all the “div†values into the total of “d†values so that
to get the true “d†total uou have to subtract the “div†(or any other 3
letter group beginning with d). I have tried these formulae in Lotus and
there is no problem.

 

[mikerickson]

I'm a little confused. DSUM takes a range as its third argument and it looks like you are using a string.
DSUM uses automatic pattern matching, using acd as a criteria will return all values that start with acd (including "acd" and "acdef").
If you want only the acd values returned use '=acd in the criteria range.

SUMIF might be another choice instead of DSUM.

 

[Sue]

The answer to this is that the default is "anything starting with" what is in
the criterion. To get an exact match (as required here) the second line of
the criterion needs to be ="=d" which displays as =d. The "right" answer is
then obtained. It makes me think about all criteria I have!