RE: finding differences in a list of amounts

I know this is a simple question, but sometimes you gotta look at "layer 1",
as my network admin likes to say.

Is the report totaling accurately? Can you take a section and prove the
section totals? Section totals versus grand total? I've seen programs that
have different decimal precision or weird rounding that makes section totals
inaccurate.

Where is the user getting her data to key into Excel? Is it from this report
or another source? Is there a way for her to prove the data in Excel? IOW,
why would Excel be correct and not the report (assuming the previous
paragraph checks out)? Are there hidden rows or columns in the Excel data
that could be overlooked; I ask since the Excel total is lower.

HTH,
Loyd

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dan Bale
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 1:24 PM
To: midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: finding differences in a list of amounts

(Cross posting to midrange-l, rpg400-l)

Anybody know of a solution for this?

I have a user that tells me that a report she is getting has the wrong total
amount.  The report shows the detail (a lot of it) but her total that she
keeps track of in a spreadsheet is different from the report's.  Her
spreadsheet doesn't have the detail.  Here's what I have:

$384,582.91 = the report total
$371,448.26 = the user's total
-----------
$ 13,134.65 = difference

Unfortunately, I do not have a single amount of 13,134.65 in my detail.  So,
I must have multiple amounts that total to 13,134.65.

The solution I am looking for is to be able to try all the combinations in
the detail to see what turns up equal to a given total amount.  For example,
if I have the following detail:
     185.69
  11,134.60
     500.03
   4,841.65
   1,500.02
     419.85
etc.
A good tool would be able to find that the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th amounts add up
to the total amount I'm looking for.

Does Excel have a function for something like this?  Or is there to do it on
the 400?  SQL functions?

tia,
db