Re: How to SUM #N/A

Nel post news:C0C70C2A.39E7%zeugma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Jay* ha scritto:

On 27/6/06 15:17, in article #k#BvRfmGHA.3468@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
"Franz Verga" <fra68ve@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Nel post news:C0C6F88B.39C8%zeugma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Jay* ha scritto:

On 27/6/06 10:17, in article uvuSKqcmGHA.4164@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
"Franz Verga" <fra68ve@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Nel post news:C0C6B2EF.393A%zeugma@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
*Jay* ha scritto:

Or - the second option you mentioned (IF..)

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A1,range,col,index)),"0",VLOOKUP(A1,range,col,index))

Which will return a zero instead of an #N/A.

The statement checks for an N/A error and returns a 0.

Help search on ISNA for more details.

HTH

-Jay-

No Jay, your formula will not return a zero instead of an #N/A, but
a string which has just one character 0, so should be better write
0 without quotes: quotes are needed just for text, not for numbers.

Thanks Franz, I didn't realise I'd done that - (wrote it without
thinking).

Am I correct in thinking the 0 string could still have been
recognised as a number though, for the SUM?

-Jay-

No, it's note recognized, just skipped like blanks or null strings,
also words: you can try this;
input: A1 ==> 56, A2 ==> ="", A3 ==> ="0", A4 ==> mouse, A5 ==> 21
A6 ==> =SUM(A1:A5)

The result in A6 is 77...

Well it would be *even* if the 0 string was recognised as a number,
with it being zero, but I know what you mean - 'Number' Text strings
aren't recognised as numbersand skipped like nulls. However, can you
explain this:

A4 ==> 7
A5 ==> "2"

SUM(A4:A5) gives 7 (As expected,the "2" string isn't recognised as a
num)

=A4*A5 gives 14
=SUM(A4*A5) gives 14

Why is the "2" text string not recognised as a number by the
function, but *is* when used in a direct mathematical operation,
A4*A5 ?

-Jay-

Because Excel do an implicit conversion, when you use strings as arguments
in calculation Excel try to "translate" the strings in numbers, but the
function don't try to do this translation, because they don't have the
values , just the references, so they use the range as they are. But if you
put a string inside the SUM function you will be surprised, because Excel
now do the translation, so, for example =SUM("22",5) returns 27.

Also if you input A1 ==> =5<6, A2 ==> 6 and the try to sum, if you do:
=SUM(A1:A2) the results would be 6, but if you do =A1+A2 you will have 7 and
also if you do SUM(5<6,6) you will have 7.

This is because generally speaking functions inputs are references, not
values, but if you input values in a function, the function would try to
translate that value in a number.


--
Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Ciao

Franz Verga from Italy


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