Issue:
A calculated cell (e.g. =300-299.73) that has a Number format of General may display as 2.6999999e-1 or 0.26999999999999999 when 0.27 is expected.
Solution:
Use Number... from the Format menu to format the cell as Fixed if you are using ClarisWorks. In ClarisImpact the Number Format... will be found under the Table menu.
Explanation:
Calculating the difference between two large numbers that is in the range of -1 to 1 may produce results that are slightly off. This is due to the fact that ClarisWorks relies on the Standard Apple Numerics Environment (SANE) for it's computations and there are some precision related issues in SANE that ClarisWorks does not correct for.
Another way to illustrate the issue above is:
A calculated cell (e.g. = 409.39 * .5) (the calculation result is 204.695) that has a Number format of General may display as 204.69 when 204.70 is expected. Following the above procedure will work but causes some issues.
The cell will display the desired figure, but when the contents of the formatted cell (formatted as 204.70) are included in another calculation, the real calculated number will be used (204.695). To avoid the possibility of a discrepancy between what is displayed and what is calculated, use the round function in calculated cells where rounding is desired. In the above example you would want to use the following formula - Round(409.39 * .5 ; the result is 207.70).