Advertisement
hp calculators
HP 17bII+ Clearing Functions
Properly clearing (erasing previous work) your calculator is a crucial operation that can save you time and grief. Your HP 17bll+ has
such powerful retention capability that an operation you performed days, weeks, months, even years ago can still be in the
calculator's memory bank, waiting to be used. But also waiting to interfere with subsequent calculations you want to perform!
So, get rid of numbers and information you don't want any more by using one of the following:
1. The 'CLR' key
If you want to clear only the calculator line, which is the line you see in the display where the numbers appear just above
the menu labels, press 'CLR,' in the lower lefthand corner of your keyboard. That won't clear any other numbers you have
in the memory banks that you want to use later on.
2. The Color Shift Key and CLEAR DATA
Press 'SK' and 'CLR DATA' for the most sweeping of the clearing operations. This will clear not only the calculator line but
also any other numbers you have keyed in and/or calculated within that same menu. Try going, for example, to the time-
value-of-money menu by pressing 'FIN' and then 'TVM.' Do you see the variables starting with "N," to the far left and
continuing with the fifth variable to the right, "FV?" See our time-value-of-money section for an explanation of these
symbols and how each can be calculated. If you press 'SK' and 'CLR DATA' when you are in this menu, you will clear both
any information on the calculator line and also any numbers you have inserted or calculated for each of these five
variables.
Unless you want to retain some particular number within a menu, it is always a good idea to clear that menu by pressing the
shift key, 'SK,' and 'CLR DATA.' That will ensure that some number you forgot to clear after the previous calculation will not
interfere with your current calculation and throw you off.
3. Sideways arrow key pointing to the left
Press this key when you want to remove a single digit from a number you are currently keying in. The blinking cursor will
follow you to the left every time you press the sideways arrow key until you "zero out" the calculator line by removing all the
numbers.
Key in, for example, '1,' '2,' and '4.' Let's say you really wanted the number, "123" to be in your display. Press the
sideways arrow key and it will clear the last digit, '4,' that you pressed. Then hit '3' and "123" should now show in your
display, with the cursor blinking to the right.
In the Algebraic mode, once you have keyed in a number and then follow it with an arithmetic operator, pressing the
sideways arrow key will first remove that operator. Hitting the arrow key again will clear the entire number.
About the same thing will happen in the RPN mode. Once you have entered a number, that is, pressed the number and
then hit the 'ENTER' button, hitting the sideways arrow key will clear the entire number.
For both the Algebraic and RPN modes, a number that you have calculated as the result of an arithmetic operation will be
cleared if you hit the sideways arrow key. Of course, any number being keyed in or one that is the result of an arithmetic
operation will be cleared entirely by pressing either of the other two clearing functions: the 'CLR' key or 'SK' and 'CLR
DATA.'
hp calculators
- 2 -
HP 17bII+ Clearing Functions
Advertisement
