#VALUE! Error When Computing the Natural Log. for 60 Numerical Values

Question

Hello:

I am having a trouble with this. I am getting a #VALUE error when I computer the natural logarithm for sixty numerical values for an independent variable. It is for an empirical research project.

Joshua

Answer 1

Dana wrote:

=LN("Text")

#VALUE!

But =LN("1234") and =LN("   1234   ") work just fine, returning about 7.118.

@JLanex, you might look to see if not only are the "numbers" text, but also they contain non-printing characters, notably non-breaking spaces (HTML &nbsp).

For example, if =LN(A1) returns #VALUE, does =LN(SUBSTITUTE(A1,CHAR(160),"")) remedy the problem?

If not, the devil is in the details.  You might need to upload an example Excel file to a file-sharing website and post the public/share URL in a response here so we can have a look-see.

Answer 2

Bonjour Jean-Claude,

I read that you often have to convert values from x.y to x,y. This is include in my add-in JP's Extension.

As you can see in the left upper corner, I have the same number format, after clicking on the button ...

So when I have to open a x.y number format, I first change it to US format in the ribbon, open the file and click the number format again to get x,y.

The add-in is freeware and I distribute updates to all users if of course have their e-mail address (what you can find in my profile or in the help)

It has even the option to import M/D/Y dates and convert them to D/M/Y in one click.

Answer 3

It might also be a dot/comma confusion : in my french Excel, LOG("1.2") yields a #VALUE error too, since the decimal separator is a comma by default. It often happens that numeric output from other software uses a dot, so I have to convert data.

You may use the TYPE function to check.

Answer 4

> ... I am getting a #VALUE error

=LN("Text")

#VALUE!