Reference Guide

Building Reports Using the Web Intelligence Java Report Panel 351
23
Troubleshooting formulas
Overview
This chapter describes the errors that Web Intelligence generates when you create a
formula that contains an error. All formula error messages begin with ‘#’ and appear in
the cell in which the formula is placed.
The errors are:
•
#DIV/0
• #MULTIVALUE
• #OVERFLOW
• #SYNTAX
• #INCOMPATIBLE
• #RANK
• #DATASYNC
•
#CONTEXT
• #SECURITY
• #RECURSIVE
•
#ERROR
#DIV/0
#DIV/0 occurs when a formula tries to divide a number by zero, which is mathematically
impossible. Zero can never appear as a divisor.
Example: Determining revenue per item
You have a report showing sales revenues, numbers of items sold and the revenue per item
(which is calculated by dividing the sales revenue by the number of items sold).
You had a very bad quarter in which you didn’t create any revenue; the Revenue per
Item column returns #DIV/0 for this quarter, because the formula is attempting to divide
by zero; that is, divide the revenue by zero number of items sold.
#MULTIVALUE
#MULTIVALUE occurs when you place a formula that returns more than one value in a
cell that outputs one value only.
Example: Multivalue in a cell