topic Re: Why is my (very) simple formula not populating the column? in Discussions

Why is my (very) simple formula not populating the column?

BunnyBoi12 — Wed, 04 Dec 2024 22:38:19 GMT

Howdy,

So I have a strange problem in which the formula I have set a column to is not working. I've done it countless other times before and its worked, and the formula is very very simple. The formula is pictured below. I am trying to determine the total yield of chemicals of interest, of which there are 4, so just adding them all together.

Any help would be appreciated!

Re: Why is my (very) simple formula not populating the column?

dlehman1 — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 00:29:44 GMT

It's hard to tell without you provide a sample of your data. But one possibility is that all your rows have at least one of those variables missing. In general, it is better to use the Sum function (found under statistical functions) rather than manually adding variables - if any of the variables are missing, the total will be missing. But the Sum function will provide the total for whatever variables are not missing.

Re: Why is my (very) simple formula not populating the column?

jthi — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 05:15:09 GMT

Without seeing the data: does one of them have missing values?

Re: Why is my (very) simple formula not populating the column?

BunnyBoi12 — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 16:50:38 GMT

My bad, I'll attach it below. So its a full time course data for multiple reactors, so there are several blank spaces. And in many instances one of the chemical is present while other are not. So I think you are correct in what my problem is. Thanks!

Re: Why is my (very) simple formula not populating the column?

BunnyBoi12 — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 16:52:19 GMT

That's definitely what it is. I thought that JMP would interpret the blanks as zeros when using the formula. I posted the data set above in the other comment. Thanks for the help! Still trying to work out all the kinks of JMP

Re: Why is my (very) simple formula not populating the column?

jthi — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 17:02:11 GMT

Missing is closer to null or N/A than 0. Depending on the calculation they will be usually: ignored or make calculation return also missing value.

Like @dlehman1 said, Sum can be used instead of Add if you wish to ignore them.