Frequency bug?

FREQUENCY function returns {2; 1; 1}. 2 values (0.1 and 0.2) are equal to or less than 0.2. 1 value (0.3) is larger than 0.2 and equal or smaller than 0.3. 1 value (0.4) is larger than 0.3.

This example is not working as I thought it would.

FREQUENCY function returns {2; 0; 2} and I don´t understand why?

The formula in cell B8:B11 returns this array {0.1; 0.2; 0.3; 0.4}, exactly the same values as in B2:B5.

=MOD(ROW(11:14)/10,1)

It seems to be the MOD function but why?

Why am I using the MOD function? To extract the fractional part of a number.

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Frequency bug.xlsx

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5 Responses to “Frequency bug?”

Alex Groberman says:

May 25, 2015 at 3:53 pm

Hmm, seems like it's half Frequency's fault and half Mod's fault.

=MOD(1.3,1) causes the issue, but =MOD(2.3,1) does not. Yet =MOD(1.3,1)=0.3 returns true. Very interesting catch!

Reply
Oscar says:

May 26, 2015 at 7:40 am

The same thing happens if I use INT function to extract the decimal part of a number.

Like this:

=1.1-INT(1.1)
=1.2-INT(1.2)
=1.3-INT(1.3)
=1.4-INT(1.4)

Both Excel 2010 and 2013 yields the same output.

Reply
Excel Roundup 20150601 « Contextures Blog says:

June 1, 2015 at 5:01 am

[…] Cronquist is having a problem with the FREQUENCY function, when combined with the MOD function. Can you explain the […]

Reply
XLarium says:

June 3, 2015 at 9:11 pm

It's our old friend the floating point error.
https://www.office-loesung.de/p/viewtopic.php?f=166&t=693238#p2874564

MOD(ROW(A13)/10,1)=0,3 is TRUE but
(MOD(ROW(A13)/10,1)-0,3) is 5,55111512312578E-17 but
MOD(ROW(A13)/10,1)-0,3 is 0

So, ROUND(MOD(ROW(11:14)/10,1),1) should work.

Reply
- Oscar says:
  
  June 4, 2015 at 8:09 am
  
  XLarium,
  
  Thank you for commenting, I didn't know this.
  
  I found this:
  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/78113
  
  That explains why this happens.

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