Weird Excel Math Issue

sswingle

Diamond Member
Mar 2, 2000
7,183
45
91
Ok, so I have an equation in J14, which is

=(A4+A10-A2-A8)/2

A4 is 15.15, A2 is 15.00 A10 is 25.47, A8 is 25.00

These 4 values are set as currency, 2 decimal points.

The resulting answer is 0.31. As it should be.

But then I want to take J14*1704 which should be 528.24.
However Excel is giving me 522.92

If I remove the equation from J14 and manually enter 0.31 excel gives me the proper answer of 528.24. Put the equation back in, and even though the cell still says 0.31, it gives me 522.92.

Any guesses as to what is going on?

Excel 2007 BTW
 

Zorander

Golden Member
Nov 3, 2010
1,143
1
81
No such issue here.

One or more of those 4 fields must be more than 2 decimals. Setting them as currency simply displays them as such. It does not actually change their digit structure. Copy and paste (value) them into other cells (General format) and you should see which ones have more than 2 decimal places.
 

Albatross

Platinum Member
Jul 17, 2001
2,344
8
81
I think it`s a famous Excel bug with floating point multiplication,try updating Office maybe?
Or make it display more decimals places,I suspect that.31 might be .3178728582blabla or .3054124bla.
 
Last edited:

BrightCandle

Diamond Member
Mar 15, 2007
4,762
0
76
There is a rule in programming that says that if you think Select is wrong then you are wrong.

Excel is definitely not getting the maths wrong, its simply impossible. I suspect the number is formatted to less decimal places or something else is off.
 

cl-scott

ASUS Support
Jul 5, 2012
457
0
0
I just tried it with Excel 2010, and got the correct answer. So there's something else going on, probably with one of your formulas.
 

IronWing

No Lifer
Jul 20, 2001
72,811
33,811
136
No such issue here.

One or more of those 4 fields must be more than 2 decimals. Setting them as currency simply displays them as such. It does not actually change their digit structure. Copy and paste (value) them into other cells (General format) and you should see which ones have more than 2 decimal places.


This. (528.24-522.92)/1704 = 0.003122 which would get rounded off in a 2 decimal display.