Article ID: 100825
Article Last Modified on 1/18/2007
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft Office Excel 2003
- Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
- Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition
This article was previously published under Q100825
SYMPTOMS
In Microsoft Excel, when you perform a mathematical operation on cells that contain text and values, you may receive a #VALUE! error.
CAUSE
Although some functions correctly evaluate cells and ignore text strings, if you add the cells by using arithmetic operators such as addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), or division (/), an error value may occur.
WORKAROUND
Instead of using an individual mathematical operator, use its equivalent worksheet function instead:
SUM (adds)
PRODUCT (multiplies)
QUOTIENT (divides)
For example, if you type the following information in cells A1:A7 of a worksheet
A1: 10
A2: text
A3: 20
A4: =A1+A2+A3
A5: =SUM(A1+A2+A3)
A6: =SUM(A1,A2,A3)
A7: =SUM(A1:A3)
the formulas in cells A4 and A5 return a #VALUE! error; however, cells A6 and A7 return the correct value of 30.
Additional query words: XL2002 XL2000 XL97
Keywords: kbprb KB100825
