sum wont subtract - what am I doing wrong?

ixus_123 · Guest

I'm using Open Office 1.1.1 and Calc to basically keep track of my bank statements.

column C is money in
D is money out
E is current balance

so I use something like this in cell E10

=E9+C10-D10

But it subrtacted in one cell but just wont do it in any others - even if I edit the formula and thats all i ask it to do.

Is this a bug? Am I missing something really obvious.

Please help.

(I am running Slackware 9.1 with Dropline Gnome 2.6)

Iannz · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 6:48 pm Post subject:

The most likely scenario is that the value in cell D10 is being interpreted as text.
Make sure that the cells are not formatted as text.
That there is no initial apostrophe.
Try reentering the numbers - just numbers.
Hope this helps.
_________________
Cheers, Ian

http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Extensions_development_basic a wiki about writing OpenOffice.org extensions.

Guest · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 6:58 pm Post subject:

WOW - thanks - problem sorted.

I went back and there was a leading apostrophy - I have no idea how that got there but removal certainly helped.

Thankyou for your swift reply

erikanderson3 · Posted: Mon Apr 19, 2004 7:08 pm Post subject:

The apostrophe is something OOo (Excel too, for that matter) automatically inserts before numbers in cells formatted for text. It basically says, "treat these numbers like a text string." To make sure that numbers you enter into a cell are treated as numbers instead of a string, select the range of cells for entry, and either click Format -> Cells, or right-click and select Format Cells. Then choose the Numbers tab, and select the appropriate entry from the Category field on the left.

Cheers,

Erik

ixus_123 · Newbie Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 3 Location: London, UK

Thanks a lot guys
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700Mhz Athlon running Slackware 9.1 with Dropline Gnome