Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Hi Folks

I have a row with numbers, i.e.

120.00 
182.65 
224.50 

I put them in a row an add the SUM fonction, it works,
BUT:
If I put them in a grater space i.e.

120.00

182.65

224.50

they don't work anymore,
why??

Thanks for an answer

Can you upload such file (see: How to attach a document here)?

"they don't work anymore"

What DO they do?

David.

More information would be nice, but my guess is that you added the space after you configured the SUM, and now the SUM function does not refer to the correct cells.

Double-click the cell containing the SUM, and Calc will highlight the cells it references. You can adjust it by dragging or expanding the colored outline.

I put 3 numbera in A1:A3, select A1:A3 and push the sum-button at the formula bar. This puts formula =SUM(A1:A3) into A4. Now I can insert cells (or entire rows) in A1:A3 and see how the formula adjusts to =SUM(A1:A4), =SUM(A1:A5),...

I can also clutter some numbers in some range, select the used range and push the sum-button at the formula bar. This appends SUM formulas below the selected range, one for every selected column. =SUM(A1:A4) =SUM(B1:B4), =SUM(C1:C4). Again, I can insert and delete rows in A1:C4 and all formulas adjust properly.

I can see one situation where things will not work as expected: When pushing the Sum button without having a range selected, expecting Calc to automatically select the correct range.

In this case, Calc will not read your mind (even though it seems like it does sometimes). Instead it will select a contiguous range of numbers from the active cell, upwards or to the left. So if there's no empty cells in the range, Calc will do what's needed. If there are empty cells, Calc will stop at the first empty space.

If a wrong range is selected, you can manually select the correct range before accepting the formula.

hi,

i also have a problem with the SUM function using OO 3.0 on ubuntu 8.10.

i am very used to clicking on the SUM function while in the cell i want the SUM result in. i then highlight the cells i want the SUM function to include and hit enter. now this is when i would usually expect all of the numbers in the cells highlighted to be SUMMED (something like "=SUM(D4:I4)" ). well now in 3.0 i get a result of 0 (zero) no matter what i do. i change this to be the formula i really want "=SUM((D4*E4)+(F4*G4)+(H4*I4))" and the result still ends up being 0 (zero).

of course the cells D4-thru-I4 all have numbers greater than 0 ... ~~~

any ideas here?

cheers,
tt

You don't really need the SUM() function here. Just enter =(D4*E4)+(F4*G4)+(H4*I4).
The sum function is for making a sum from one or more ranges. For single cells or ranges it's not needed, and it sometimes doesn't work as expected. With a different layout of your cells you might use the SUMPRODUCT() function for your calculation.

You don't really need the SUM() function here. Just enter =(D4*E4)+(F4*G4)+(H4*I4).

this is how i would normally enter basic calcs like this. i just used SUM() func for this calc after =(D4*E4)+(F4*G4)+(H4*I4) would result in a zero. so either way i end up with a result of zero when all of these cells have >0 values.

i just tried it again to verify and yes i still end up with a result of zero using =(D4*E4)+(F4*G4)+(H4*I4).

thanks
tt

This is what I get. Do you see any differences in your formula than the one displayed here?

Then I guess your numbers are entered as text, or autocalculate is off. In numerical calculations, text cells give the number zero.

Select menu item View - Value highlighting. Number constants will show in blue, text constants black, and formula results green. (At least that's how it is in my setup.)

If autocalculate is off, you can press function key F9 to manually initiate a recalculation. The menu item for AutoCalculate is in Tools - Cell contents.

I have a column of dollar values that I want to sum. =SUM(C1:C39) does not calculate.
Open Office 4.1.6 Windows 10

I have a column of dollar values that I want to sum. =SUM(C1:C39) does not calculate.

Because they are strings but not numeric values.

This sounds similar to a problem you asked about previously.

As suggested above, select menu item View - Value highlighting. Number constants will show in blue, text constants black, and formula results green. Text values will not sum.

See [Tutorial] Text to Columns for ways to convert some text values to numeric. If you are importing these values from a CSV file, make sure you check the option to Detect Special Numbers.

You might find it useful to review [Tutorial] Ten concepts that every Calc user should know

Solved.

OpenOffice 3.3 on Windows 7

Please update your signature in this forum. I can not believe that you are using that very old version of the OpenOffice.

And please create a new topic for your problem in another time, in another cases. Or use your similar topic if you want to continue the discussion about the problem.