XL98: Times Created by Filling-Down May Be Incorrect (178860)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Excel 98 Macintosh Edition
This article was previously published under Q178860

SYMPTOMS

If you have formula that is referencing a cell containing a time value, the formula may return an unexpected value. For example, if you have the following data in Sheet1 of your workbook 
   A1: 12:00 AM   B1: a   C1: 1:00 AM   D1: =VLOOKUP(C1,A1:B5,2,FALSE)
   A2: 12:30 AM   B2: b
   A3:  1:00 AM   B3: c
   A4:  1:30 AM   B4: d
   A5:  2:00 AM   B5: e
the value returned by the VLOOKUP formula in cell D1 may be #N/A.

CAUSE

You may experience this problem if the times that your formula references were created by the fill-down feature in Microsoft Excel. In the example in the "Symptoms" section, you would have manually typed the times into cells A1 and A2, but you used the fill-down feature to create the times in cells A3, A4, and A5.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, you can either manually re-enter your times, or you can use the Precision As Displayed option on the Calculation tab in the Preferences dialog box.

To turn on the Precision As Displayed option for the active workbook, follow these steps:
  1. On the Tools menu, click Preferences.
  2. Click the Calculation tab in the Options dialog box.
  3. Click to select the Precision As Displayed check box, and click OK. Note that you receive the following warning:
    Data will permanently lose accuracy.
  4. Click OK.
NOTE: When you change the precision of the calculations in a workbook by using the displayed (formatted) values, Microsoft Excel permanently changes any constant values on all worksheets in the workbook. If you later choose to calculate with full precision, the original underlying values cannot be restored.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article. We are researching this problem and will post new information here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base as it becomes available.

REFERENCES

For more information about the Fill-Down feature, click the Index tab in Microsoft Excel Help, type the following text

filling cells, series

and then double-click the selected text to go to the "Fill in a series of numbers, dates, or other items" topic.
Modification Type:MajorLast Reviewed:9/11/2002
Keywords:kbbug KB178860
©2002 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.