Data Integrity & Structure
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Designed and Developed by Paul M. Critchlow, © 2026,
“When Spreadsheets Lie – that false confidence in spreadsheets,” released 10 Feb 2026
When SUM Ranges Don’t Include Full Data
A surprisingly common issue I still see is incomplete calculation ranges.
Examples:
=SUM(A1:A186) when data runs to row 222
new rows added below existing formulas
totals that exclude recent entries silently
Excel doesn’t warn you when this happens.
The formula is valid.
The number looks reasonable.
But part of the dataset is simply not being counted.
These errors often survive for years because they don’t look wrong — they’re just incomplete.
Question to consider:
When was the last time you checked whether your totals include all current data rows?
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