Comma Functions Improperly in Functions with Canadian Layout

• Microsoft Excel for Windows, versions 2.x, 3.0, 4.0, 4.0a, 5.0

SUMMARY

If you have Country set to Canada (English) in the International section of the Control Panel in Microsoft Windows version 3.0 or 3.1, the comma will function improperly as a list separator in all Microsoft Excel functions that take multiple arguments. For example, =IF(TRUE,1,0) will return an "Error in Formula" message. However, =IF(TRUE.(1).(0)) will function correctly.

To make the Microsoft Excel functions work correctly, from the Control Panel, choose International, then type a period in the List Separator box, i.e. type over the comma.

Setting Country to Canada causes the default value for the list separator to be a period. All other English-speaking countries use the comma as a list separator. Because the only Canadian version of Microsoft Excel is French, the English-speaking Canadians use the International English version which defaults to a comma as a list separator.

MORE INFORMATION

Microsoft Excel detects that fact that the list and decimal separators are the same. If this is the case, the following error message will be displayed:

The list and decimal separators specified by the system are identical. Substituting ',' for the list separator.

As noted in the message, Microsoft Excel substitutes the comma in this case.