ERROR - "The formula contains a number outside of the valid range"

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ERROR - "The formula contains a number outside of the valid range"

Hello,

I am using an equation that is returning the error "the formula contains a number outside of the valid range" when the constituent cells of the equation contain a negative number. I have tried using the inspector to format the problem cell(s) differently, but to no avail. The equation works fine in other respects. How is numbers deciding what the valid range for variables in my foruma is?

I've done the math out separately to make sure the equation isn't dividing by 0 or something wacky, but there's nothing wrong with the formula or the result... It should be doing math and it's not!

I haven't found any posts by other users with the same problem.

Thanks.

Numbers '09-OTHER, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Aug 3, 2012 2:35 AM

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Answer 1

Aug 3, 2012 3:52 AM in response to jds88

jd,

It would help us if you paste the formula in your post here, exactly as it appears in the cell. Also tell us the values of the inputs to that formula.

Changing a cell's format seldom has any effect on the calculation. Formatting changes how a result is displayed, but not what the result of the formula is behind the screen.

Jerry

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Answer 2

Jan 20, 2013 11:02 PM in response to Jerrold Green1

I've hit this error in Numbers on iOS with the formula

=(((-9)*2)+1)^3.12

this formula will give the error in the title, but if you remove the negative sign the calculation will work. The calculation will also work if you raise the parentheses section to the power of 3 rather than 3.12.

It looks to me like a bug in raising negatives to fractional powers.

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Answer 3

Jan 20, 2013 11:20 PM in response to Thoughtfulbloke

I Should perhaps elaborate I don't expect the program to be able to raise negative numbers to a fractional power, it just wasn't the most useful message- I hit it when some cells caused a negative term some of the time.

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