Values Imported from Excel

A user recently submitted this question:

“The results reported in my excel spreadsheet and those imported into LIMS don’t seem to be matching up. The problem seems to be caused by that value being produced by an equation. When I delete the equation and just enter in a number it seems to import it just fine. Is there a way to fix this so that I can keep the equation but it will just import the value produced by the equation?”

Yes. When importing results from Excel, LIMS imports the actual value in the workbook’s cell, which may be different than the displayed value due to the cell’s format. Just modify your formula to use Excel’s ROUND function to control what value will be imported.

For example, if a cell’s formula is =2/3 and the cell has a number format with two decimal places, the value 0.67 will be displayed. However, the cell’s actual value with Excel’s default 15 digits of precision is 0.66666666666667, which is the value LIMS imports. Such a value may be difficult to see completely on both the Excel Data Import and results entry screens. The solution is to round the results of the original formula to a specific number of digits. Change the formula to =ROUND(2/3, 2) to ensure LIMS imports 0.67. Search for the ROUND function in Excel’s help for a complete description and additional examples.