As has been pointed out on the net its a display problem and Excel's internal value is correct. We can check this by creating an Excel 2007 spreadsheet with A1 = A2-1 gives 65534 A2 =850 * 77.1 gives 100000 A3 = A2+1 gives 100001 A4 = A2+2 gives 65537
and then running this code from R on the spreadsheet to examine the internal values that Excel has stored: library(RDCOMClient) xls <- COMCreate("Excel.Application") xls[["Workbooks"]]$Open("C:\\tmp2\\badcalc.xlsx") rng <- xls[["ActiveSheet"]]$Range("A1:A4") x <- rng[["Value"]] x When I run that I get this showing the internal values are correct: > xls <- COMCreate("Excel.Application") > xls[["Workbooks"]]$Open("C:\\tmp2\\badcalc.xlsx") An object of class "COMIDispatch" Slot "ref": <pointer: 0x001e7b94> > rng <- xls[["ActiveSheet"]]$Range("A1:A4") > x <- rng[["Value"]] > x [[1]] [[1]][[1]] [1] 65534 [[1]][[2]] [1] 65535 [[1]][[3]] [1] 65536 [[1]][[4]] [1] 65537 On 9/25/07, Patrick Burns <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Just speaking of the field I'm most familiar with, there > are now users of R in many of the largest financial > companies in the world. > > http://www.burns-stat.com/pages/Tutor/spreadsheet_addiction.html > > is one place to look for arguments against Excel. > This was just updated to include an amusing numerical > bug in Excel 2007. Guess what 850 * 77.1 equals. > > > Patrick Burns > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > +44 (0)20 8525 0696 > http://www.burns-stat.com > (home of S Poetry and "A Guide for the Unwilling S User") > > Eleni Rapsomaniki wrote: > > >Dear R users, > > > >I have started work in a Statistics government department and I am trying to > >convince my bosses to install R on our computers (I can't do proper stats in > >Excel!!). They asked me to prove that this is a widely used software (and not > >just another free-source, bug infected toy I found on the web!) by suggesting > >other big organisations that use it. Are you aware of any reputable places > >(academic or not) that use R? (e.g. maybe you work for them) > > > >I would be really grateful for any advice on this. Also suggestions on > >arguments > >I could use to persuade them that R is so much better than Excel would be > >very > >much appreciated. > > > >Many Thanks > >Eleni Rapsomaniki > > > >______________________________________________ > >R-help@r-project.org mailing list > >https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > >PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > >and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > > > > > > > > > > ______________________________________________ > R-help@r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. > ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.