problem with "average" function

[jxk]

I tried to find out the mean of a set of numbers by using the "average"
function. But I got a zero as the result of averaging those numbers when I
know for a fact the mean should not be zero. I found the old post below and
did what was suggested thereof, but that did not fix the problem. Does
anyone know what is going on? Thanks.
************

Your numbers are text. Format the cells for general, then enter a 1 into a
blank cell. Copy that
cell, select your cells with your text-numbers, right-click and select paste
special, and choose
multiply. Then click OK, and all your values should become numbers.

 

[Harald Staff]

Do they add and sum, is it only Average that doesn't work ?

Best wishes Harald

 

[jxk]

I just tried "sum" - it appears that "sum" is malfunctioning too. What i did
was i inserted "sum" and then selected three numbers: 0.5, 0.5, 0.5. After i
hitted "enter", the result came out as 2, rather than the correct answer of
1.5. I tried a couple of other numbers, similar problem occurred.

by the way, i have office 2007 in my computer, but i tried both the 2007 and
the old 2003 format, and got the same problem.

thanks!

 

[Harald Staff]

2 may well be 1.5 formatted to display zero decimals. Or..
Serious miscalculations are almost always caused by circular references. See
bottom left if there's a warning about it there.

Best wishes Harald

 

[pdberger]

jxk --

Another possibility besides formatting or a circular reference. Have you
hidden any rows/columns that would throw things off?