EXCEL - Why is there a limit on the number of cells I can SUM?

[tmcrae]

I am trying to sum up a column of numbers (each of which is either 0 or 1) that is 7,402 cells in length. When I use the SUM function, I get a result of zero. In fact, I get a result of zero as long as the number of cells I am summing is bigger than 2,799. Once the number of cells in the range drops below 2,800 I get a non-zero result.

The same Excel function on another machine in the office works perfectly; in other words all 7,402 cells add up correctly. So there is obviously something different about Excel's settings on my machine when compared to the to the other one.

Can anyone shed some light on what I need to do to my version of Excel in order to amke this work?

Thanks in advance.

 

[KenWright]

Save the file on the machine that works, and then open the exact same file on your machine. Also, vice versa and let us know if it is the same.

What version of Excel as well.

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[tmcrae]

Nevermind. I found the problem.

The sum was being performed on a column of cells that had values set to either 0 or 1 based on the value of the cell in the corresponding row of another column. Somehow, instead of a value in this other column, however, one of the cells contained a circular reference. And, although the end result was a valid value appearing in my summing column for that cell (it was a zero), the sum function essentially stopped working at that point. If the column sum included only those cells in those cells above or below this cell, then it worked correctly; as long as it included this cell, the sum showed up as 0.

Sorry for the hassle and thanks for the feedback.