cell value in numbers displays date instead of formula value in currency

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cell value in numbers displays date instead of formula value in currency

I use numbers frequently and a spreadsheet I use suddenly consistently displays a date (30 April 2017) instead of a sum value that always was there. I have tried changing the cell format back to currency, clearing all and resetting the formal deleting the row and inserting a new formula in another cell and this problem persists. Have quit and restarted numbers and whole computer. Not sure how this happened or how I can fix it.

Posted on Feb 3, 2016 10:17 AM

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Answer 1

SGIII

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Feb 3, 2016 11:26 AM in response to christomac

Can you post a screenshot?

SG

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Answer 2

christomac Author

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Feb 3, 2016 11:54 PM in response to SGIII

Sure here it is. No matter how many times I reformat the cell to currency, or the column, or delete the total row and try to recreate another sum on another row, the same thing happens. Also happens on my MacBook Pro when I download the file from Dropbox. Probably something ridiculously simple, but its got me flummoxed!

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Answer 3

SGIII

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Feb 4, 2016 6:42 AM in response to christomac

Not necessarily related to your problem, but general Numbers usage.

Is there a reason you don't put the sum in the last row of the table, define that row as a Footer Row and then use the formula =SUM(D) ?

What does the rest of your column D look like? Are there cells up above that don't contain a Cost figure? Are you using a formula in column D to calculate Cost? Is it in all of the cells of column D?

SG

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Answer 4

christomac Author

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Feb 4, 2016 9:55 AM in response to SGIII

Thanks for your input here.

I had the formula in the footer row initially but when the value became corrupted tried changing all sorts of things, including deleting the row and inserting the sum in a new row. Recreating a footer row with a new sum formula for that column still returns a date, now May 2017. Whenever I reformat the cell with the formula back to currency, the date value persists. The column is all numbers representing parking charges and formatted as currency, and worked fine up until Wednesday. Other sheets in the workbook work still seem OK. The formula is a simple sum and only in the final row, all the other cells are formatted as currency and only contain digits with a $ sign

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Answer 5

SGIII

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Feb 4, 2016 11:22 AM in response to christomac

Glad you were able to solve the problem.

SG

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Answer 6

christomac Author

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Feb 5, 2016 2:22 AM in response to SGIII

HI SG, this problem is not solved I still have it and cannot see any explanation for it.

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Answer 7

Yellowbox

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Feb 5, 2016 3:27 AM in response to christomac

Hi Christomac,

It is all too easy to mistakenly mark a question as Solved.

Please give more information, especially answers to SG's questions:

What does the rest of your column D look like? Are there cells up above that don't contain a Cost figure? Are you using a formula in column D to calculate Cost? Is it in all of the cells of column D?

Is there anything in Column D such as a forward slash?

Summing a column of figures defaults to date format

Regards,

Ian.

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