hewo again

[Don Corleone]

i've got a list of numbers from O36 to O269. i wanted those numbers to be multiplied by a number which was in P34, and the result to be in the cells from P36 to P269. so in the cell P34 i type the formula "=O36*$P$34". i get a result..but the result is wrong. for example, the value in O36 is 33.84, the value in P34 is 1.03..so i wanted 33.84 multiplied by 1.03 and the result to be in P36 and i could just drag for the rest of the results. the answer they gave me with that formula was 34.95..but then i did it manually and i got 34.87.

help appreciated

[davesexcel]

you have a lot of contradicting statements....

=O36*$P$34 =34.8552

=33.84*1.03 = 34.8552

[Don Corleone]

so why does the formula give me an answer of 34.95, when i do it manually and get 34.87?

[MrShorty]

Do you know what the exact values (to 15 figures) in those cells are? I'm guessing they are not 33.8400000000000 and 1.03000000000000. If I multiply 33.8449 (which would correctly display as 33.84 to two digits) and 1.0349 (which would also display correctly as 1.03 to 2 digits), I get 35.03 (to two digits). Gut feel is that you have the spreadsheet formatted to display those cells to two digits past the decimal point, but Excel still uses the entire underlying value to its full precision in calculations. If you need the calculation to be 33.8400000000000*1.03000000000000 then you need to use the ROUND function to force each entry to round to the desired level of precision.

[Don Corleone]

Do you know what the exact values (to 15 figures) in those cells are? I'm guessing they are not 33.8400000000000 and 1.03000000000000.

nah i rounded. the exact figures in the cells are 33.84170124 and 1.032745592. the answer they give me is 34.94986778 and when i do it manually it is 34.87444683

[oldchippy]

33.84170124 x 1.032745592 = 34.9498677813909

33.84 x 1.03 = 34.8552