JenniferMurphy
Well-known Member
- Joined
- Jul 23, 2011
- Messages
- 2,676
- Office Version
- 365
- Platform
- Windows
I just discovered what I consider a major flaw in the design of the Union (comma) operator. As illustrated in the workbook here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v0799qr2uex4imf/AAAWi4Jhq4-vfCmuQTn4qo4Za?dl=0
The Sum function, when applied to a union of overlapping ranges, will sum the values in the overlapping area multiple times. Mathematically, this is nonsense. What possible rationale could the geniuses at M$FT possibly have had in mind?
I am inclined to agree with opinions expressed here,
http://dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2005/01/16/union-and-intersect/
that they just had this "operator", the comma, already implemented and decided to call it an operator and ignore the fact that it is mathematically wrong.
I would love to hear a compelling defense of this design.
PS: It looks like a couple of my personal UDFs, which I moved to a code module, may not be working in the workbook. My apologies if that's true. I would also appreciate any hints of how I can make that work when I send workbooks to other people that make use of any of my personal add-in code.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/v0799qr2uex4imf/AAAWi4Jhq4-vfCmuQTn4qo4Za?dl=0
The Sum function, when applied to a union of overlapping ranges, will sum the values in the overlapping area multiple times. Mathematically, this is nonsense. What possible rationale could the geniuses at M$FT possibly have had in mind?
I am inclined to agree with opinions expressed here,
http://dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2005/01/16/union-and-intersect/
that they just had this "operator", the comma, already implemented and decided to call it an operator and ignore the fact that it is mathematically wrong.
I would love to hear a compelling defense of this design.
PS: It looks like a couple of my personal UDFs, which I moved to a code module, may not be working in the workbook. My apologies if that's true. I would also appreciate any hints of how I can make that work when I send workbooks to other people that make use of any of my personal add-in code.