I’ve just upgraded to Excel 2010 (it was free as I bought 2009 recently). I now don’t have another version of excel to test it on but I think I’ve discoved a SUMIF bug. Now I know the chances of me discovering a bug in excel are almost zero, so can someone tell me what I’m doing wrong, or alternatively tell me what their version of Excel does?
- Open a blank workbook
- In sheet1, put 1 (just the number) in cells C1 to D3 (6 cells – the exact number doesn’t matter)
- In sheet2, put 2,3, and 4 in cells D1, D2, and D3 respectively
- Now in a cell in sheet2 put the following formula
=SUMIF(Sheet1!D1:D3, 1, Sheet2!D1:D3) - In another cell in sheet2 put this formula
=SUMIF(Sheet1!C1:C3, 1, Sheet2!D1:D3)
As far as I can see, the cells should display the same value, but in my version of excel, the first displays 3 (incorrectly) and the second displays 9 (correctly – the sum of 2,3 and 4.)
The values 1,2,3, and 4 are irrelevant. It seems to be the fact that the letters for the columns match that causes the bug.
Before anyone argues Excel isn’t programming I beg to differ.
[ I have since found another bug report on a technet forum: http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/excel/thread/cda9fef8-8ad4-4d56-8939-49b1ae50c4e7 – so it might be real ]
I’ve pursued more investigation – it is a bug in Excel 2010 (but not 2007), and Microsoft have now acknowledged it here: SUMIF bug excel 2010. See the posts from Jenny E. No word on a fix yet.