Why do people use SUM() unnecessarily?
"Dave Peterson" wrote:
I think that one of the first things people learn is how to add
two cells: =sum(a1+a2)
Okay. Dovetailing Dave's idea with Bob's, I would speculate
that one of the first uses of formulas that people encounter
is summing a column of numbers, such as a balance sheet.
The form of such a spreadsheet is a column of cells with simple
numbers followed by a cell of the form =SUM(A2:...) or
=SUM(A2+A3+...). People might conclude that arithmetic
expressions must always be enclosed in a function, and SUM()
might be the first or only function they are exposed to. This
conclusion might be reinforced when they see responses in
these forums that misuse SUM() as well.
So if we accept Dave and Bob's theory, it becomes all the
more important that when we see this misuse of SUM() in
postings, we explain that SUM() is unnecessary, rather than
simpy accept it tacitly, much less defend it, as just another
"coding style". It is not "just a matter of style" when someone
names a constant variable TWO and assigns it the value of 3,
even though that might work just fine in his application.
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