Thank you for the help. I have learned that when adding up a column of many
cells with the SUM command, the colon : uses all the cells to get the total
while the semi-colon used just the first and last cells in the column. Whether
the numbers are negative or not does not does not matter. Since the difference
between a colon and a semi-colon can be very confusing, I think this is a
weakness of OOo.
Dan Lewis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Tuesday February 20 2007 11:13 am,
Walter Hildebrandt wrote:
> When there is a negative number in a column of numbers and the SUM
> command is used and a ; (semi-colon) is used to separate the two
> cells, the total is correct. However, if a : (colon) is used to
> separate the two cells, the total is not correct. What is the
> different meanings of the semi-colon and the colon when used in the
> SUM command?
That is strange. Please give an example of this. My experience is
not the same as yours.
I entered +1, -3, +2 in cells A1 through A3 respectively. I
entered SUM(A1:A3) in A4. The result was 0 as it should be. When I
entered SUM(A1;A3) in A4, the result was 3 When I entered
SUM(A1;A2;A3) in A4, the result was 0.
My conclusion is this. The : (colon) states the entire range to
be added. The ; (semi-colon) allows you to add the individual cells
you list.
If your total is not correct when using the : (colon), then
possibly one or more numbers are formated as text.
Dan
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
---------------------------------
TV dinner still cooling?
Check out "Tonight's Picks" on Yahoo! TV.
