sum(A+B) <> sum(A+B)

[mthompso]

I encountered a very strange phenomenon with Excel the other day.

The Excel SUM of 2 numbers did not equal the sum of the two numbers. The Excel sum has many extra numbers after the decimal point (ex: .05000000189). I don't recall the exact figures, but hopefully you get the point.

Any ideas what caused this strange phenomenon or do you have any idea how to solve it?

 

[Special-K99]

Your thread heading is incorrect
SUM(A+B) will always equal SUM(A+B), if it didnt you're implying Excel returns different values for the same function.

By any chance did you mean "SUM(A+B) doesnt equal A+B"?

This is, as you've suggested, probably due to the lengthy decimal numbers after the decimal point.

 

[Fazza]

hi. sounds like normal floating point arithmetic rounding errors. some google hits below. hth, F

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/78113

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/214118

http://www.cpearson.com/excel/rounding.htm

http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive...es-excel-give-me-seemingly-wrong-answers.aspx