XL97: Times Created by Filling-Down May Be Incorrect

• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

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

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 Options dialog box.

To turn on the Precision As Displayed option for the active workbook, follow these steps:

1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

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.

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