"Duration units were removed" -- Why?

I have a timesheet file with several sheets, each with several tables. One sheet uses one of its tables to keep a running total of hours worked in several different categories, using a SUMIF function based on another table where the hours are logged.

I am getting unexplained behavior with the cells where the totals are displayed. These are formatted as durations, but when their value is zero they display as currency, and sometimes (but not always) they continue to display as currency when their value is non-zero, even though they are the sum of durations in the other table. There is a little blue triangle in the upper left corner of the cell, which when I click on it gives a message "Duration units were removed", with no option but to "Ignore".

What is going on? I don't want the duration units removed, and I don't want to ignore the matter -- I want to correct it! How do I do so?

I should point out that this has nothing to do with another thread on a similar topic, in which the poster had created his file on an iPad and then opened it on his Mac. I am working entirely on a Mac.

Mac Pro 8-core, Mac OS X (10.6.6), 3 GHz; 13 GB RAM

Posted on Feb 8, 2011 7:48 AM

17 replies

Jeffrey Dean Author

Level 1

40 points

Feb 9, 2011 11:38 AM in response to Jerrold Green1

What I said in my feedback was that, although the general User Guide is designed for "the rest of us", the Formulas and Functions Guide assumes a thorough familiarity with the fine detail of how things work, and explains none of the principles. There's nothing in between for users like me who have gone beyond the basics covered in the User Guide but haven't yet reached the lofty plane of the Formulas and Functions Guide.

Jeff

<Edited by Host>

KOENIG Yvan

Level 8

41,819 points

Feb 9, 2011 1:15 PM in response to Jeffrey Dean

I'm balancing about the behavior which fooled you.

I'm quite OK to name the described behavior as an odd one.

The column from which your formula extract values to sum contain only duration items.
So I feel that it would be interesting, when there are no values to sum because there are no entries matching the initial condition, to return a zero duration value, not a standard number zero.
I don't know if it would be too complicated to code this behavior.

On the other hand, I may easily imagine that, when there are no value matching the condition, the code return a zero without any kind of study of the column storing the values to sum.

Would be interested by other helpers's advices.

Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France) mercredi 9 février 2011 22:15:45

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"Duration units were removed" -- Why?