need help with excel... please

[tsunami]

for you excel guru types out there i need a bit of help. i made a small spread sheet up for collecting some information here at work for the different production lines and shifts.

it was working fine till the other day i put in my information and the sum function for 2 of the 9 total boxes gives me the output 1E+05

wtf is with that i checked my cell format and checked the forumla.. its a simple formula =SUM(C6:C36) can't really get more simple then that but for some reason two of the sum boxes are giving me that as a reading though if i copy and paste from the box it gives the correct sum??? any ideas?

thanks for the help

 

[Rogue]

i thought for the sum of 2 specific cells was =sum(C6,C36)

=sum(C6:C36) would give you a total of all the cells

 

[tsunami]

yeah i am totaling a column sorry should have been a bit more specific

 

[tsunami]

ok its got something to do with the fact that i put the letters "NP" in the fields for the weekends, then when they worked weekends they replaced the "np" with numbers and the equation didn't like it... i checked and the format for those cells was set to general..

i need to learn excel better this is a simple problem and i am stuck... lame

 

[generix]

i haven't used excel in a while, but it looks like it might be converting to scientific notation. try expanding the width of that column and see what happens?

 

[rx7mazda]

i haven't used excel in a while, but it looks like it might be converting to scientific notation. try expanding the width of that column and see what happens?

Hey upload the excel file or email it to me unlavvful@yahoo.com and I'll see what I can do. I'm no genius at it, but I'm pretty good at troubleshooting.

 

[tsunami]

just sent the file thanks for the help


edit****** wow i did what generix said about widening the colum and it now works... like i said i am an excel noob it looks like i might be all set... thanks guys.

 

[generix]

glad to hear it worked. when excel numbers get over the width of the column, i think general then allows it to convert to scientific notation. there might be a type that doesn't do that, but you would have to play with them to figure out which one it is.

 

[rx7mazda]

Alright, let us know if there is anything else

 

[Falango]

Ya if a number can't fit in a cell, it either converts it so it can still be read, or it displays a bunch of ##### which also means, the cell needs to be either widened to read the number, or the text needs to be shrunk. The easiest thing to do, is go to the top of the column in which you see that error, in your case, C column, and double click on the right border of the column, and it will automatically adjust the width of the entire column to accomidate the widest batch of text within one of the cells in that column.

 

[tsunami]

thanks guys... i thought i was doing alright when i figured out how to count empty cells and s***... lol still learning

 

[Notorious]

One thing that helps is just right click on the cells in question and go into format. Once there find the "text" setting and it'll format correctly.