What does '1E+307' mean?

[Natalie50208]

I'm using a formula to track the last time a client was invoiced and it uses 1E+307 to look up the last data cell in a range...I'm just curious as to what this stands for?

Thanks!

 

[tc88]

I'm using a formula to track the last time a client was invoiced and it uses 1E+307 to look up the last data cell in a range...I'm just curious as to what this stands for?

Thanks!

That is scientific notation for 10,000,000,000...with 307 total zeros

 

[wigi]

It stands for a very very very big number. It will be bigger than the other numbers, so Excel will conveniently "stop" at the last entry in the column.

 

[Jonmo1]

It's Scientific notation...Basically it's a VERY large number
I think (as I understand) the E designates 0's repeated 307 times..
So it's a number beginning with 1 followed by 307 0's.


This is used in lookup formulas, to ensure the lookup value is larger than any possible number in the array in the range.

Usually used to find the LAST number in an array..


Hope that helps.

 

[wigi]

I think (as I understand) the E designates 0's repeated 307 times...

The E should be read as: 10 to the power of ... (the number 307)

 

[T. Valko]

I'm using a formula to track the last time a client was invoiced and it uses 1E+307 to look up the last data cell in a range...I'm just curious as to what this stands for?

Thanks!

That is a number expressed in scientific notation which is a "shorthand" method of writing very large numbers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_notation

 

[Natalie50208]

Thank you all very much for the insight

 

[Greg Truby]

Hi Natalie. It also means that there's a reasonably good chance that whoever wrote that formula either got it from here or is a member or visitor here. Many times you will also see formulas here use a named constant BIGNUM which is usually defined as 9.99E307 (or if it's from Aladin, 9.99999999999999E+307 who is a stickler for precision ). The value is not random -- it is the largest numeric value that Excel can store with precision.

<SUP>edit</SUP> The value is listed here along with other Excel specs: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/excel-specifications-and-limits-HP010342495.aspx <SUB>/edit</SUB>

I've been to Newton, Iowa and to Newton, Kansas. Are you in one of those Newtons, or in MA, NJ or NC?