#VALUE
 

I have a simple spreadsheet in which three columns are used to keep track of
an account balance.

Column A is withdrawals, B is deposits, C is balance. A typical entry in C25
would be =C24 - A25 + B25. One of the cells in A or B will be empty in row
25.

This approach has been working well and blank cells have resulted in a value
of zero being used in the calculations. However, recently the #VALUE result
comes up instead of the expected result..

If I replace the empty cell with 0 then the formula appears to work
correctly, so the problem is related to how the lack of an entry in one of
the cells is being considered. The confusing thing is that entering a value
of zero has not been required previously.

All three columns have been formatted as number.

#VALUE
 

Formatting means presenting the cell value in a certain way for human
consumption. The #VALUE error means the cell content is not appropriate for
the purpose that you are using. For example if A1 = ab and A2 = 1 and A3 is
=A1+A2, then #VALUE occurs because A1 is not numeric.

Tyro



"Hank in KC" wrote in message
. ..
I have a simple spreadsheet in which three columns are used to keep track
of an account balance.

Column A is withdrawals, B is deposits, C is balance. A typical entry in
C25 would be =C24 - A25 + B25. One of the cells in A or B will be empty
in row 25.

This approach has been working well and blank cells have resulted in a
value of zero being used in the calculations. However, recently the #VALUE
result comes up instead of the expected result..

If I replace the empty cell with 0 then the formula appears to work
correctly, so the problem is related to how the lack of an entry in one of
the cells is being considered. The confusing thing is that entering a
value of zero has not been required previously.

All three columns have been formatted as number.

#VALUE
 

are you positive the cells are empty or is there a space character in them?



"Hank in KC" wrote:

I have a simple spreadsheet in which three columns are used to keep track of
an account balance.

Column A is withdrawals, B is deposits, C is balance. A typical entry in C25
would be =C24 - A25 + B25. One of the cells in A or B will be empty in row
25.

This approach has been working well and blank cells have resulted in a value
of zero being used in the calculations. However, recently the #VALUE result
comes up instead of the expected result..

If I replace the empty cell with 0 then the formula appears to work
correctly, so the problem is related to how the lack of an entry in one of
the cells is being considered. The confusing thing is that entering a value
of zero has not been required previously.

All three columns have been formatted as number.

#VALUE
 

Good question. I went to the empty cells and used EDIT-CLEAR-ALL and the
result was good in that a correct result was obtained without having to put
a zero value in the empty cell.

Hopefully this solves my problem as well as explains it.

Many grateful thanks!

Hank
--
Live simply, love generously


"JMB" wrote in message
...
are you positive the cells are empty or is there a space character in
them?



"Hank in KC" wrote:

I have a simple spreadsheet in which three columns are used to keep track
of
an account balance.

Column A is withdrawals, B is deposits, C is balance. A typical entry in
C25
would be =C24 - A25 + B25. One of the cells in A or B will be empty in
row
25.

This approach has been working well and blank cells have resulted in a
value
of zero being used in the calculations. However, recently the #VALUE
result
comes up instead of the expected result..

If I replace the empty cell with 0 then the formula appears to work
correctly, so the problem is related to how the lack of an entry in one
of
the cells is being considered. The confusing thing is that entering a
value
of zero has not been required previously.

All three columns have been formatted as number.

#VALUE
 

Blank is equal to 0 in calculations

Tyro

"Hank in KC" wrote in message
. ..
Good question. I went to the empty cells and used EDIT-CLEAR-ALL and the
result was good in that a correct result was obtained without having to
put a zero value in the empty cell.

Hopefully this solves my problem as well as explains it.

Many grateful thanks!

Hank
--
Live simply, love generously


"JMB" wrote in message
...
are you positive the cells are empty or is there a space character in
them?



"Hank in KC" wrote:

I have a simple spreadsheet in which three columns are used to keep
track of
an account balance.

Column A is withdrawals, B is deposits, C is balance. A typical entry in
C25
would be =C24 - A25 + B25. One of the cells in A or B will be empty in
row
25.

This approach has been working well and blank cells have resulted in a
value
of zero being used in the calculations. However, recently the #VALUE
result
comes up instead of the expected result..

If I replace the empty cell with 0 then the formula appears to work
correctly, so the problem is related to how the lack of an entry in one
of
the cells is being considered. The confusing thing is that entering a
value
of zero has not been required previously.

All three columns have been formatted as number.