Multiplication error: Off by .03

[Mrs Dumm]

All,
I have an end-user whose Excel 2003 multiplication is off by .03 for all
multiplications. For example, if he multiplies 10 * 10, he gets 99.7.

Suggestions?
Alicia

 

[Ron Rosenfeld]

All,
I have an end-user whose Excel 2003 multiplication is off by .03 for all
multiplications. For example, if he multiplies 10 * 10, he gets 99.7.

Suggestions?
Alicia

Is he really multiplying 10*10 or is he multiplying two cells which are
displaying 10?

If he enters =10*10 into some cell what does it show?

My guess is that he is multiplying two cells that display 10 but really contain
something like 9.985.


--ron

 

[Tyro]

It could well be that the cells containing the 10's are formated with
rounding to 0 places of decimal when in fact they contain values such as
9.98498873
which appears as 10 when formatted with rounding to 0 places of decimal but
if multiplied by itself produces 99.7 in a cell with 1 place of decimal.
You have to look at the underlying values in the cells, not the formatted
values. Excel uses the values in the cells for calculations, not the
formatted values.
Increase the number of decimal places appearing in the cells.

Tyro