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Multiplying by percent column yields result that is 100 times too big [SOLVED]

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dhc
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast
Status: Launched

Multiplying by a percent column acts as if the percent were in fact an integer. So 100 * 50% yields 5000 in a formula column rather than the correct result of 50.

22 Comments
Beth_Morgan
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

How does this only have 11 comments? This should have 1,111 comments. Airtable is such a wonderful product, but this one thing is so, so wrong. I honestly don’t know how a company that considers itself a database company can let a bug this big persist for years.

Michael_William
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Please update/fix this. As discussed, the longer it goes the more formulas I have that include a *.01 calculation will need to be fixed. Just to be clear, it’s worth the short-term pain to fix as soon as you can.

Alternatively, if the delay is fear of breaking existing airtables, maybe you can just add a 2nd Field Type. Percent (as Integer) and Percent (as fraction)… or whatever word better describes the difference between the stored magnitude.

Thanks,
Mike

Nathan_Beckstea
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

Big fail here, peeps. Please correct.

Kathy_Becklin
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Agree easy workaround. And think of all the bases that will have to have formulas change if they ever fix. But it is just not right.

W_Vann_Hall
13 - Mars
13 - Mars

There are possible ways around this (e.g., a configurable option to enable/disable legacy functionality, or a versioning system that say 'this base created under Airtable #.#, so behave in such and such a manner"). We’ll have to see what Airtable chooses…

StephL
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

+1! I just spend 20 wasteful minutes trying to figure out what I was doing wrong before searching and finding this post.

Magdelana_Reyes
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Also this thread was started in January 2016. High time to fix it already!

W_Vann_Hall
13 - Mars
13 - Mars

I suspect the horse has already bolted, so closing the door won’t help. Airtable has indicated there are so many customer formulas out there that assume ##% is equal to ##, rather than 0.##, correcting the problem would wreak havoc in existing applications. Instead, going forward there are steps one can take to minimize the issue.

One approach would be to wrap percentage values with the following (where {Pct} is the name of my percent field):

VALUE({Pct}&'%')

That will return the appropriate decimal value for the percent field. One good thing about this approach is that it will return the correct value regardless if {Pct} is a percent field or a text representation of a percentage — that is, using that function to wrap either 13% (percent field) or '13%' (text field) will return 0.13.

Blase_Theodore
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

+1 on this. There’s no point having a percentage classification if it doesn’t operate as a percentage. Just confusing and a hidden source of error.

Matt_Finelli
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

@Airtable do you read this thread?!