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 BBS: Inland Empire Archive
Date: 02-18-93 (19:34)             Number: 266
From: JIM LITTLE                   Refer#: NONE
  To: HUGH MARTIN                   Recvd: NO  
Subj: Help                           Conf: (2) Quik_Bas

HM>DC>  You learn the d*mnest things, by tinkering...

HM>It's amazing how many bugs and "features" are in QB 4.5.  I just ran into a
HM>one converting a stats program from QB 3.0 to 4.5.  Turns
HM>out that QB 4.0 and above (even PDS!) can't round numbers properly.
HM>According to them, CINT(30.5) = 30, but lowly QB 3.0 correctly rounds
HM>up to 31.  Thank you, Microsoft, for wasting another hour of my time.
HM>Does VB/DOS round numbers correctly, or is this bug impervious to
HM>version changes?

   My two cents:

        Some time ago, all the mathemeticians of the world got together
for one of their big 'let's decide what's TRUE in the world' shing-dings
and decided that rounding was not very accurate.  They had already
decided that if you round XX.5x, it should be rounded up, because its
definitely greater than .5.  However, if the number is XX.5, it's right
on the 'swivel point'!  What to do, what to do..  Well, it wouldn't be
right to just arbitrarily round up or down ALL the time, because that
would introduce an error (a small one, but an error all the same..) into
the calculations (eventually).  Well, these great mathematicians thought
about this for a couple days, then decided that if 'x' in the number x.5
is EVEN, you round DOWN.  If it's ODD, you round UP.  So...

         30.5 = 30    30.50001 = 31    31.5 = 32

Now, that nasty little error has been taken care of, because
statistically, the chances of an even or odd number occuring are
equal!

   Once the geniuses of the mathematical world figured this out, they
finished up their conference and went home, satisfied that they had done
some good in the world.  <Grin>


Well, obviously Microsoft decided to 'fix' the 'bug' in QB somewhere
in between version 3.0 and 4.5.  If you really need to round the 'old'
way, I would suggest INT(number! + .5).


Here to brighten your day
-Jim

 * SLMR 2.1a * Nothing is so smiple that it can't get screwed up.

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