You didn't copy the help file example properly. Place your cursor in front
of the D in the word Data then drag down thru the row ending with -9.578 and
paste in cell A1. Works fine. Click first on "How to copy an example". You
must not copy the row or column headers.

Tyro

"amy howell" wrote in message
...
I was trying to copy an example from excel help(I typed in nper function
into
the search box) into a worksheet and was getting a value error. Why was I
getting this and how can I make it so I do not have the value error?

Here is what I was trying to copy:

A B
Data Description
12% Annual interest rate
-100 Payment made each period
-1000 Present value
10000 Future value
1 Payment is due at the beginning of the period (see above)
Formula Description (Result)
=NPER(A2/12, A3, A4, A5, 1) Periods for the investment with the above
terms
(60)
=NPER(A2/12, A3, A4, A5) Periods for the investment with the above terms,
except payments are made at the beginning of the period (60)
=NPER(A2/12, A3, A4) Periods for the investment with the above terms,
except
with a future value of 0 (-9.578)

And here is what happened when I pasted it:

A B
Data Description
12% Annual interest rate
-100 Payment made each period
-1000 Present value
10000 Future value
1 Payment is due at the beginning of the period (see above)
Formula Description (Result)
#VALUE! Periods for the investment with the above terms (60)
#VALUE! Periods for the investment with the above terms, except payments
are
made at the beginning of the period (60)
#VALUE! Periods for the investment with the above terms, except with a
future value of 0 (-9.578)



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Amy Howell