Identical cell contents not really identical??

Posted by Sam Gaylord on July 11, 2001 8:21 PM

I have a list of employees by department number along with other information (full time, part time etc.) I get it every month and I'm trying to summarize it with a simple set of formulas, so I'm using the conditional sum to tell me, for example, how many employees are in Dept. 35 AND Part time.

I have the formula no problem.

My problem is when I type the formula in with the number 35 as the condition for the department number(which IS 35), it gives me a zero, even though 35 is exactlay what is in the cell. But if I copy the 35 from the cell into my formula, I get the correct result. It's part of a macro that I need to apply every month or I would just do it that way and leave it at that, but. . . no such luck.

I've got the two cells, side by side, each with the formula applied, and one works and the other doesn't even though they appear identical. I've checked every formatiing option I can think of(they are both "general", I've checked for spaces before or after the number, etc.

I think the data I'm getting is exported from Access and I'm wondering if that could have something to do with it??

HELP!!!!

Posted by Damon Ostrander on July 11, 2001 10:39 PM

Hi Sam,

This is a well-known problem. A great discussion of it and its solution can be found at:

www.faqs.org/faqs/spreadsheets/faq

Happy computing.

Damon

Posted by Aladin Akyurek on July 12, 2001 12:35 AM

Sam,

Could you post your "conditional sum" formula?

[ I couldn't find Damon's tip, but I'm never been good at weeding thru faqs. ]

Aladin

Posted by IML on July 12, 2001 7:45 AM

Do you get the same results applying the =isnumber() formula to both your cells? If not, you could modify your data by putting a 1 in a cell, copying it and paste special multiply. Or possibly running a quick text to columns over the data.

good luck.