When Sum That Is Zero Is Not Equal To Zero

I have written a report to summarise the accounting transactions for a group.
To easily identify the “unbalanced” groups, -i.e. those with non-zero sum, I inserted a cell next to the sub-total that contains:

= If ((Sum() In <> 0)) Then “Please check.” Else “Ok.”

This produced the following types of sub-totals instead of all being “Ok.”

-0.00 Please check.
0.00 Please check.
0.00 Ok.

= If ((Sum() In <= -1) Or (Sum() In >= 1))
Then “Please check.” Else “Ok.”

When is zero not equal to zero? How does BusinessObjects store sums and compare them?
I am sure there is a technical explanation for this.

We are using BusinessObjects version 4.0.5.3, but I have tested the above to be the same in version 4.1.2.

Regards to everyone,

Lorenzo Escalante, Jr.
BHP IT
Perth, Western Australia


Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

Hi. It might be that your “OK” on the 0 amount may be because the amount was not actually 0 but rather #EMPTY. This could occur if you have your tran_amount formatted so that undefined amounts are replaced with 0. Check the setup of the object format in designer. If the undefined is set to 0 and the tran_amount in your data cube (data, view) is #EMPTY, that may be the cause.

Crystal Golding
Senior Systems Analyst
Management Information Section
University of Queensland
Brisbane Australia 4072
E-mail: c.golding@mailbox.uq.edu.au
Web: www.mis.jdstory.uq.edu.au
Phone: +61 7 336 57289
Fax: +61 7 336 58202


Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

Lorenzo,
I guess the value that is diplayed as 0.00 is something like 0.00001. This often happens if the field has been calculated before (in BO or on the DB). Try to display more 0’s after the decimal seperator to prove this.

Hope that helps,
Mathias

= If ((Sum() In <> 0)) Then “Please check.” Else “Ok.”
This produced the following types of sub-totals instead of all being “Ok.” -0.00 Please check.
0.00 Please check.
0.00 Ok.
When is zero not equal to zero?

Lorenzo Escalante, Jr.
BHP IT
Perth, Western Australia


Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

Have you tried rounding the data prior to or inside your formula. This may do the trick.


Listserv Archives (BOB member since 2002-06-25)