#VALUE

[Hank in KC]

I have a simple spreadsheet in which three columns are used to keep track of
an account balance.

Column A is withdrawals, B is deposits, C is balance. A typical entry in C25
would be =C24 - A25 + B25. One of the cells in A or B will be empty in row
25.

This approach has been working well and blank cells have resulted in a value
of zero being used in the calculations. However, recently the #VALUE result
comes up instead of the expected result..

If I replace the empty cell with 0 then the formula appears to work
correctly, so the problem is related to how the lack of an entry in one of
the cells is being considered. The confusing thing is that entering a value
of zero has not been required previously.

All three columns have been formatted as number.

 

[Tyro]

Formatting means presenting the cell value in a certain way for human
consumption. The #VALUE error means the cell content is not appropriate for
the purpose that you are using. For example if A1 = ab and A2 = 1 and A3 is
=A1+A2, then #VALUE occurs because A1 is not numeric.

Tyro

 

[JMB]

are you positive the cells are empty or is there a space character in them?

 

[Hank in KC]

Good question. I went to the empty cells and used EDIT-CLEAR-ALL and the
result was good in that a correct result was obtained without having to put
a zero value in the empty cell.

Hopefully this solves my problem as well as explains it.

Many grateful thanks!

Hank

 

[Tyro]

Blank is equal to 0 in calculations

Tyro

Good question. I went to the empty cells and used EDIT-CLEAR-ALL and the
result was good in that a correct result was obtained without having to
put a zero value in the empty cell.

Hopefully this solves my problem as well as explains it.

Many grateful thanks!

Hank