PowerPivot shrinks precision of my data withour any notification

Question

 

 

 

Hi there,

I tested PowerPivot with really big numbers and have a look - it simply shrinks the precision of my data without any notification or warning.

 

Well guys - there are cases out there which will need to analyse big values...

Any ideas - comments on this?

Andi

 

Additional Info

Even more confusing is that the table preview shows the data correct (!):

The values are converted into the precision of a decimal type (R8 internally) and displayed as scientific value (e.g. 123...E+27).

But no comment on the loose of precision!

Answer 1

Hi,

Numeric is an old Sybase data type that is still in SQL Sever for backward compatibility. You should check if the same problem appears if you choose decimal as the data type?

Best Regards

Thomas Ivarsson

 

Answer 2

Same behavior - numeric and decimal in SQL give the same effects to PowerPivot.

 

Marco

Answer 3

Hi,

This is something that happens in Excel 2010 as well.

Enter something like 123456789123456789123456789123456789 into a cell and format it.

You will see              12345678912345600000000000000000000

Seems to be an Excel issue.

Best Regards

Thomas Ivarsson

Answer 4

Hi again,

The number precision in Excel is 15 digits.

Have a look here:

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HP051992911033.aspx

And here

http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2008/04/10/understanding-floating-point-precision-aka-why-does-excel-give-me-seemingly-wrong-answers.aspx

HTH

Thomas Ivarsson