Excel cells with numbers and sums I have inherited an Excel workbook of names an

Question

Excel cells with numbers and sums

I have inherited an Excel workbook of names and addresses. I have added a column to record the number of members and summed it at the bottom. However, the Total cell only shows the formula. It claims that all the cells I am summing are empty despite the fact that I can see that each cell contains a 1 or 2. I have checked that all the cells concerned are formatted 'General' (I have also tried changing the formatting of all cells to 'Number'). Interestingly, when I set the number format to 2 decimal places, the display in the cells in this column doesn't show e.g. 1.00. It remains as 1. These cells also show present the number Left Justified even if I try to set them as Right Justified.

If I copy the cell containing the Sum and then Paste Special Values into another ceell I do get the correct total! However, I wwant thee Sum to work when I alter the entries in future, so that isn't a solution.

What is going on? It seems to mee it is something to do with the formatting of the cells in this column. I have tried adding a column elsewhere in the same sheet, but thee same problem occurs...

Explanation / Answer

I've now found a work-around, which is to copy all the dataa from the sheet of the Membership workbook and paste them into a new workbook. The column concerned then sums ass expected. Howwever, this means I now have to re-set all of the formatting for the rest of the data. OK, but not ideal. And doesn't explain whaat was happening in the original workbook...

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