You know it’s bad for Microsoft’s financial department, especially with the kind of numbers they crunch, when they can’t even perform basic multiplication. Seriously, people. it’s been 20 years, figure it out.
What am I talking about?
The “Excel 2007 Multiplication Bug,” as outlined on Slashdot:
“The example that first came to light is =850*77.1 – which gives a result of 100,000 instead of the correct 65,535. It seems that any formula that should evaluate to 65,535 will act strangely. One poster in the forum noted these behaviors: ‘Suppose the formula is in A1. =A1+1 returns 100,001, which appears to show the formula is in fact 100,000… =A1*2 returns 131,070, as if A1 had 65,535 (which it should have been). =A1*1 keeps it at 100,000. =A1-1 returns 65,534. =A1/1 is still 100,000. =A1/2 returns 32767.5.’”
How many ways do I love open source? Let me count the ways. But not in Excel.
And before you get ahead of yourself, OpenOffice does this calculation properly:
Better switch to open source if you are doing any important financial spreadsheets.
This bug was fixed by microsoft later but what will happen to those users who are still using the buggy microsoft excel… I can only imagine 🙂
I just love Open Source 🙂
