Wednesday, February 17, 2016

What's the biggest number Excel can handle?

A fairly common question about Excel is the maximum number size. Getting a simple answer requires a bit of research. The most relevant document is "Excel specifications and limits."

The absolute largest positive number that can be dealt with in Excel is 1.79769313486231570 • 10308, using the Double data type. However, you can't have a literal number in a cell bigger than (i.e. you need an arithmetic formula to go above) 9.99999999999999 • 10307. Note that the Double type is floating point, so once your numbers get that large, you'll lose some precision if you try to add comparatively small numbers. (Excel only does 15 figures.)

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