[GLLUG] More Excel accuracy woes

[Michael Rudas]

Michael Corral of the MDLUG list posted this information.  The linked
thread is VERY interesting... I wonder if this behavior is OOXML
compliant-- heh.
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Last year I posted about Excel 2002 (and earlier versions) not being
able to calculate standard deviations correctly. Excel 2003 fixed that
particular problem.  But it looks like Excel 2007 has an even more
serious accuracy issue.  Take a look here:
<http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.excel/browse_thread/thread/2bcad1a1a4861879/2f8806d5400dfe22?hl=en#2f8806d5400dfe22>

Apparently, a lot of calculations that come out to 65,535 will show
100,000 to be the answer!  For example, 850*77.1.  Man, I sure hope no
one is depending on Excel for accurate calculations.

I can confirm that StarOffice 7 does *not* have that bug. Even with
the easter eggs it still calculates accurately! :-)
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This reminds me of that old saying about bureaucracy: " A camel is a
horse designed by a committee."

-- Mikey