Multiplication bug in Excel 2007

October 3, 2007 by mike · 2 Comments

What do you get if you multiply 850 by 77.1? According to Excel, it’s 100000.

It’s not the only sum Excel gets wrong, there are also fails on:

=5.1*12850
=10.2*6425
=20.4*3212.5
=40.8*1606.25
=77.1*850
and more!

Excel 2007 Calculation Error

A poster on Google Groups has identified the major bug in Excel 2007, which is caused whenever the multiplication answer is 65535. For some unknown reason, Microsoft Excel displays 100000 in place of the correct answer. As 65535 is the highest number which can be represented by an unsigned 16 bit binary number, I wonder if this bug also occurs in Vista x64 or XP x64.

Any calculations on the .value property of the cell will use the correct value. So, it’s just a rendering issue then?

Maybe! Microsoft are investigating. I bet we won’t be waiting long for a product update.

Comments, please!