Numbers that show as there but won't sum

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hi Ho Silver
  • Start date Start date
H

Hi Ho Silver

I had a column of five cells, E115 through E119. I can see the numbers in
those cells, and they look correct. They are numbers that were manually
entered, not referenced from other cells, nor a result of another formula
(although they may have been copied from other cells).

I used =SUM(E115:E119) to add the numbers and place the result in cell
E120. The result was incorrect. The sum shown had omitted two of the
values in the range.

I eventually worked around the problem by re-entering the 'phantom' numbers,
and the sum formula then worked correctly. What has me puzzled is how a
number can appear completely legitimate in a cell, yet not be picked up as
part of the range in a formula. I don't want to repeat this, so if you
can give me a clue as to why this might happen, would appreciate it.
Thanks.
--
John Hanley
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Hi:

If the cell is initially formatted as text and a number entered into it,
even if the cell is subsequently reformatted to numeric, the entry in the
cell is not recognized as a number until you re-enter it or do a phantom
edit. It's an annoying problem with Excel.

Regards,

Vasant.
 
Some of the "numbers" may be text. try this:

Select the "numbers" and Format>Cells>Number>OK.
Copy a blank cell.
Select the data and Edit>Paste Special>Add.
 
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