Excel 15 digit number limit issue


  1. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Home Premium
       #1

    Excel 15 digit number limit issue


    Try this. Type a 16-digit number in a cell, say:
    1234567890123456

    Then right click the cell and format this as a number, with no decimal places.
    Your number has just become:
    1234567890123450 (note the last digit is now a zero).

    great stuff. Not. It has effectively corrupted your input (changed your value) without notifying you in any way that you've hit a limit.

    My question is - is this known behaviour for Excel 2007?
      My Computer


  2. Posts : 3,427
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #2

    Hi skydiver welcome to the forums. It seems this is a known limitation of Excel. See below.

    Microsoft Excel supports a maximum of 15 significant digits at all times. This limit applies to a value that is calculated by a formula. Because of this limitation, if at any time a formula calculates a value that exceeds 15 digits in length, digits beyond the fifteenth significant digit are changed to zeroes. This may cause the formula to return an incorrect result.
    From: Problems vith Statistical Functions and Large Numbers in Excel

    Incidentally, I dont know if it helps, but Open Office Calc (which is free by the way ) doesn't have this limitation: http://www.openoffice.org
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  3. Posts : 7
    Windows 7 Home Premium
    Thread Starter
       #3

    thanks, and thanks.
    Seems it was a known limitation, but not to me!
      My Computer


  4. Posts : 3,427
    Windows 10 Pro x64
       #4

    skydiver123 said:
    thanks, and thanks.
    Seems it was a known limitation, but not to me!
    Thats alright I didn't know either I had to research it. Then again, I'm an Open Office man.
      My Computer


  5. Posts : 1
    Windows 7
       #5

    Hi

    I had problems with the 15 character limit for the execel but I could solve using the following tools:
    xlPrecision
    I paid $ 13 for the license and it worked fine, but it was hard to find ...
    So I'm posting this solution to help those who have the same problem!
      My Computer


 

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