I open a text file in comma delimited, and then try to run a sum of 600+
lines. The following is returned -1.86825E-10 and the formula is written as
=SUM(E1:E648)

If I remove the E1 and enter E2, my sum will be the opposite of E1. This
file is a General Ledger integration, so basically the number should be zero,
and this is what I am trying to verify. The column format is General. Does
anyone have any suggestions on why it does this?

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Excel has rounding errors. Set your format to fixed, 2 decimal places and it
will come out 0.00, just like you want.

"Sr Accountant" wrote:

I open a text file in comma delimited, and then try to run a sum of 600+
lines. The following is returned -1.86825E-10 and the formula is written as
=SUM(E1:E648)

If I remove the E1 and enter E2, my sum will be the opposite of E1. This
file is a General Ledger integration, so basically the number should be zero,
and this is what I am trying to verify. The column format is General. Does
anyone have any suggestions on why it does this?

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Try

=SUM(ROUND(E1:E648,2))

which is an array formula, so commit with Ctrl-Shift-Enter, not just Enter.


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HTH

Bob

(change the xxxx to gmail if mailing direct)


"Sr Accountant" <Sr wrote in message
...
I open a text file in comma delimited, and then try to run a sum of 600+
lines. The following is returned -1.86825E-10 and the formula is written
as
=SUM(E1:E648)

If I remove the E1 and enter E2, my sum will be the opposite of E1. This
file is a General Ledger integration, so basically the number should be
zero,
and this is what I am trying to verify. The column format is General.
Does
anyone have any suggestions on why it does this?

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Almost all computer software uses binary representations of numbers. The
only 2-place decimal numbers with exact binary representations are .00, .25,
..50, and .75; all others must be approximated (just as 1/3 can only be
approximated as a decimal fraction. You are seeing the accumulated result of
these approximations. Accounting packages can round each result to 2 figures
because they know that you can't have fractions of pennies. General purpose
programs (such as Excel) don't have that luxury, but you can with your
formulas.

Jerry

"Sr Accountant" wrote:

I open a text file in comma delimited, and then try to run a sum of 600+
lines. The following is returned -1.86825E-10 and the formula is written as
=SUM(E1:E648)

If I remove the E1 and enter E2, my sum will be the opposite of E1. This
file is a General Ledger integration, so basically the number should be zero,
and this is what I am trying to verify. The column format is General. Does
anyone have any suggestions on why it does this?

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!