PrecisionCalc
xl
Precision
Get Your Numbers Right
xlPrecision Revision History
Has xlPrecision
been updated for Windows 7?
January 15, 2010
xlPrecision has been tested with the final release of Windows 7. It worked perfectly, with no problems of any kind, so it is not necessary to update it for Windows 7. You can use xlPrecision in Windows 7 with confidence.
Has xlPrecision
been updated for the
Excel 2010 beta?
January 9, 2010
Microsoft has posted the Excel 2010 beta, and announced that they expect to release it in June 2010. Excel 2010 is the first Excel version to be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions. Betas for both 32-bit and 64-bit Excel 2010 were posted.
In the 32-bit version of the Excel 2010 beta, xlPrecision worked perfectly, with no problems of any kind. You can use xlPrecision in the 32-bit version of the Excel 2010 beta with confidence.
However, xlPrecision does not currently work with the 64-bit version of the Excel 2010 beta. xlPrecision will be updated to work with the 64-bit version of the Excel 2010 beta as soon as possible.
What's New in
xlPrecision 3.1?
January 4, 2010
- Division calculation speed is improved in xlPrecision 3.1. The improvement varies with the lengths of the divisor, dividend, and quotient, but for most scenarios it is about 10 - 15 TIMES faster.
Of course, all other xlPrecision functions that use division (which is most of them) benefit from this improvement, too, to varying degrees depending on how much they use division.
- Multiplication calculation speed is improved in xlPrecision 3.1. The longer the multiplication product, the greater the improvement. With a 400,000-digit product, it's about 18 times faster. With a 32,000-digit product, it's about 10 times faster. With a 1,000-digit product, it's about 40% faster. With a 100-digit product, it's about 10% faster.
Of course, all other xlPrecision functions that use multiplication (which is most of them) benefit from this improvement, too, to varying degrees depending on how much they use multiplication.
- xlPrecision 3.1 adds the format_decimal_place parameter to several xlPrecision functions, allowing you to easily specify that you want digits to always appear exactly out to whatever decimal position you specify. So instead of a list of xlPrecision results that looks like this, with varying numbes of decimal places:
123.45 12.34567 1,923.68 12,569
You can instead easily make the results look like this, all with exactly the same number of decimal places:
123.45 12.35 1,923.68 12,569.00
Or like this, in this case with exactly four decimal places:
123.4500 12.3457 1,923.6800 12,569.0000
Like Excel's number formatting, format_decimal_place rounds to the nearest. For example:
- If you specify formatting the number "9.876" to 2 decimal places, it rounds it to "9.88".
- If you specify formatting the number "9.99" to 1 decimal place, it rounds it to "10.0". This is exactly what Excel's number formatting does.
The new format_decimal_place parameter is available on the following xlPrecision functions:
xlpADD
xlpSUBTRACT
xlpMULTIPLY
xlpDIVIDE
xlpROOT
xlpPOWER
xlpFORMAT (xlpFORMAT is a new function. More on that below.)In future versions, format_decimal_place will be available on more xlPrecision functions. Until then, you can use the new xlpFORMAT function to pad zeros to any result of any xlPrecision function, or to any number formatted in Excel as Text.
On editions that allow more than 100 significant digits, xlPrecision prevents inadvertently causing long calculations by defaulting to 100 significant digits unless a custom maximum is specified in the function's maximum_significant_digits parameter. Now, version 3.1 allows you to customize that default from 100 to any number you wish.
Version 3.1 also adds the new xlpDEFAULTMAXSD function, which allows you to determine the default maximum significant digits currently in effect.
Depending on your edition of xlPrecision, xlpFORMAT allows you to:
Version 3.1 is a free upgrade on request for xlPrecision 3.x owners.
For information about upgrading from versions 1 and 2, see What's New in xlPrecision 3.1
What's New in
xlPrecision 3.0.3?
November 15, 2009
xlPrecision 3.0.3 fixes an internationalization bug that caused some xlPrecision functions to return the error "#VALUE!" for some input values in locales where the decimal symbol is not a period (".").
Version 3.0.3 is a free upgrade for version 3.0.x users on request.
What's New in
xlPrecision 3.0.2?
June 8, 2009
xlPrecision 3.0.2 fixes a bug in xlpROUND that caused incorrect thousands separator and scientific notation formatting in certain circumstances.
Version 3.0.2 is a free upgrade for version 3.0.x users on request.
What's New in
xlPrecision 3.0.1?
May 15, 2009
xlPrecision 3.0.1 fixes a bug where if Excel was started by opening an Excel workbook that has a file-open password, xlPrecision returned error 50290. This bug was never reported by an xlPrecision user.
Version 3.0.1 is a free upgrade for version 3.0 users on request.
What's New in xlPrecision 3.0?
May 10, 2009
xlPrecision 3.0 adds three new functions:
xlPrecision 3.0 also adds xlpXLA, for getting the version of the xlPrecision.xla file.
xlPrecision 3.0 also makes the Free Edition easier to use. For example:
xlpLOG was privately commissioned, scheduling it ahead of calculation performance improvements that were in progress, with the understanding that it would be added to the publicly available versions of xlPrecision. If you want to privately commission another new function to make it available in the short term, that service is available on request.
If you own xlPrecision version 1.x or 2.x and want to upgrade to version 3.0, it's inexpensive and easy.
If you're upgrading to the same number of significant digits, such as 1,500 SD or 32,767 SD, and to same edition (Express or Research), the price is exactly one half of the version 2.0 price for that edition -- or $15, whichever is less.
If you're also upgrading to a higher edition or to more significant digits, just add the difference between the prices of the two version 3.0 editions.
For example:
If you're upgrading from an earlier 1,500 SD Express edition to the version 3.0, 1,500 Express edition, the price is 1/2 of the version 3.0 price, or $6.00.
If you're upgrading from an earlier 1,500 SD Express edition to the version 3.0, 5,000 Research edition, the price is 1/2 of the version 3.0 price of the equivalent edition from which you are upgrading, or $6.00, plus the difference between the equivalent version 3.0 edition from which you are upgrading and the version 3.0 edition you're upgrading to. That difference is $16.00 ($28.00 - $12.00). So the total price of that upgrade would be $6.00 + $16.00, or $24.00.
If that's confusing, just tell me what edition you want to upgrade to and I'll figure out the upgrade price for you.
To upgrade, simply paypal me at greglove@oz.net and send me an email telling me that you paypalled me and what for. If you prefer not to use paypal, just email me and we'll work something out to your satisfaction.
Instead of paying for an upgrade, you can get it for FREE! Here's how.
What's New in
xlPrecision 2.1.3?
April 24, 2009
xlPrecision 2.1.3 fixes a bug reported yesterday in the xlpROUND function. In a certain tiny percent of circumstances, it rounded down when it should have rounded up.
What's New in
xlPrecision 2.1.2?
March 9, 2009
xlPrecision 2.1.2 fixes a bug that affected Excel 2002. If Excel 2002 was started by opening an Excel workbook that had macros (instead of starting Excel directly, then opening the workbook from within Excel), xlPrecision returned error 50290.
What's New in
xlPrecision 2.1.1?
September 17, 2007
xlPrecision 2.1 was inadvertently branched away from version 2.0.2. Version 2.1.1 merges the changes made to 2.0.2 back into 2.1.x. The only change for users is that the new xlpPOISSON function is now available to customers of the 2,147,483,648 SD Edition.
What's New in
xlPrecision 2.1?
July 7, 2007
xlPrecision 2.1 adds high-precision Poisson, including both cumulative and non-cumulative Poisson. The free edition will be updated to version 2.1 as soon as I have time. xlpPOISSON works the same as Excel's POISSON function, except that it adds optional arguments to allow specifying the number of significant digits and specifying whether you want the return value to be in scientific notation. In addition to the high-precision return value, the input numbers (target_num and average_num) can also be high-precision numbers if desired.
Until the free edition is updated to version 2.1, you will need a new xlPrecision.xla file to use xlpPOISSON. It is available on request.
xlpPOISSON was privately commissioned, with the understanding that it would be added to the publicly available versions of xlPrecision. If you want to privately commission another new function to make it available in the short term, that service is available on request.
Has xlPrecision
been updated for
Excel 2007 and Windows Vista?
May 31, 2007
xlPrecision has been tested with the final release versions of Excel 2007 and Windows Vista. It worked perfectly, with no problems of any kind, so it was not necessary to update it. You can use xlPrecision with Excel 2007 and Windows Vista with confidence.
What's New in xlPrecision 2.0.2?
February 21, 2006
xlPrecision 2.0.2 adds the new 2,147,483,648 SD Edition.
What's New in xlPrecision 2.0.1?
January 10, 2006
xlPrecision 2.0.1 fixes a bug where certain non-integer roots and non-integer powers in xlpROOT and xlpPOWER could cause Excel to hang, due to an infinite loop.
What's New in xlPrecision 2.0?
November 16, 2005
xlPrecision 2.0 offers more than 10 times as many powerful features as version 1. If you liked xlPrecision before, you'll love it now!
For a complete list of functions, see the Function Reference.
All are new in version 2.0 except xlpADD, xlpSUBTRACT, xlpMULTIPLY, xlpDIVIDE, xlpSUM, xlpVERSION, and xlpSD_EDITION.
Division is faster too, because division calls into multiplication.
Version 1.0 functions accepted numbers in exponential notation as arguments. But now, version 2.0 functions can also return their results in exponential notation.
In addition to high precision, xlPrecision 2.0 offers many features that empower you to go beyond Excel's capabilities in other ways. Save valuable time with xlPrecision's powerful Excluder functions. View your sorted data at a glance with the exceptional sorting function. Take control of your fractional data with the versatile fraction reducer. See Data Control & Analysis Features.
Use Excel's Insert Function dialog to insert xlPrecision functions more conveniently than typing them in directly. See the Quick-Start Tutorial.
On editions that allow more than 100 significant digits, xlPrecision prevents inadvertently causing long calculations by defaulting to 100 significant digits unless more are specified in the formula. Editions that do not allow more than 100 significant digits default to 5 less than the maximum allowed.
Setup detects all installed compatible versions of Microsoft Excel (Excel 97 and later) and installs itself as an add-in in all of them, so you don't have to do that manually in Excel's Add-Ins dialog.
Also looks for future versions of Excel, and if those future versions record add-in installations in the same way as Excel 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2007, it installs itself as an add-in in those future versions, too.
The uninstall program removes all those settings, so that if xlPrecision 2.0 is uninstalled, Excel doesn't display a dialog saying that it can't find xlPrecision.
Has xlPrecision
been updated for Excel 2003?
January 5, 2004
xlPrecision has been tested with the final release of Excel 2003. It worked perfectly, with no problems of any kind, so it was not necessary to update it. You can use xlPrecision with Excel 2003 with confidence.
