I need to enter more than 10 numbers to left of the decimal and more than 5
to the right of the decimal. Right now if I enter more than 10 numbers to the
left of the decimal, the number to the right of will start to round
automatically.

If you need to do math with these numbers, you'll have to find a
workaround - XL only retains 15 decimal digits of precision.

If it's a part number or some other number that you won't do math on,
preformat the cell as Text, or prefix the number with an apostrophe (').

In article ,
"Andre" wrote:

I need to enter more than 10 numbers to left of the decimal and more than 5
to the right of the decimal. Right now if I enter more than 10 numbers to the
left of the decimal, the number to the right of will start to round
automatically.

Hi Andre,

Excel only allows 15 significant digits, which is the quantity of digits
from the left-most non-zero digit to the right-most non-zero digit. This
limitation is based on an industry standard called "IEEE 754", which
increases calculation speed by sacrificing precision. Other spreadsheet
programs have the same or very similar limitation.

If you don't need to do any math with these numbers of yours that have more
than 15 significant digits, you can enter them as text, by either
pre-formatting the cell as Text, or by entering a leading apostrophe in the
cell.

If you do want to do any math with these numbers, you might want to try my
Excel add-in xlPrecision 2.0, which allows doing math on numbers with as
many as 32,767 significant digits. You can download the free edition of
xlPrecision 2.0 here and use it as long as you wish:

http://PrecisionCalc.com


Thanks,

Greg Lovern
http://PrecisionCalc.com
Get Your Numbers Right



"Andre" wrote in message
...
I need to enter more than 10 numbers to left of the decimal and more than 5
to the right of the decimal. Right now if I enter more than 10 numbers to
the
left of the decimal, the number to the right of will start to round
automatically.

Greg Lovern wrote...
....
If you do want to do any math with these numbers, you might want to try my
Excel add-in xlPrecision 2.0, which allows doing math on numbers with as
many as 32,767 significant digits. You can download the free edition of
xlPrecision 2.0 here and use it as long as you wish:
....

Excel 10 (2002) SP-2.

I downloaded and installed the free version. A few quirks (read: NASTY
bugs). The formula

=xlpROOT(2,3)

works as expected, but

=xlpROOT(2,1/3)

hangs Excel, requiring Task Manager to kill the Excel process.
Exception handling doesn't appear to be a strength of this product.
Note that in real math, ROOT(x,y) = POWER(x,1/y), but that doesn't seem
to be how xlpROOT works. Note that

=xlpROOT(2,xlpDIVIDE(2,3))

didn't do any better.

Hi Harlan,

Thanks for catching that bug! It's the first one reported.

I've fixed the bug, and I'll get the fixed version up on the website ASAP,
after I've done more testing.


"Harlan Grove" wrote in message
ups.com...
I downloaded and installed the free version. A few quirks (read: NASTY
bugs). The formula

=xlpROOT(2,1/3)

hangs Excel, requiring Task Manager to kill the Excel process.
Exception handling doesn't appear to be a strength of this product.

It was an infinite loop.


Note that in real math, ROOT(x,y) = POWER(x,1/y), but that doesn't seem
to be how xlpROOT works.

As I'm sure you know, Excel turns this:

=xlpROOT(2, 1/3)

into this, before sending it to xlPrecision:

=xlpROOT(2, 0.333333333333333)

So the xlpPOWER equivalent would look like this:

=xlpPOWER(2, 1/0.333333333333333)

However, Excel rounds 1/0.333333333333333 to 8 before sending anything to
xlPrecision. So, it isn't equivalent after all. An exact or nearly exact
xlpPOWER equivalent would require 1/0.333333333333333 taken to infinite
precision.

You could get close to the equivalent with this:

=xlpPOWER(2,xlpDIVIDE(1,0.333333333333333))

Except that this is affected by the same underlying bug (and fixed by the
same bugfix).


I'd offer you a free copy of a paid version of xlPrecision for finding this
bug, except that I know from previous posts of yours that you'd have no use
for it, and might even prefer a root canal. Still, it's yours for the asking
if you're interested.


Thanks again,

Greg Lovern
http://PrecisionCalc.com
Get Your Numbers Right