It is a common belief that "any" smaller digit placed earlier than a larger digit is subtracted from the total, and that by clever choices a Roman numeral can be "compressed." The best known example of this is the function in Microsoft Excel, which can turn 499 into , , , , or depending on the "" setting. There is no indication this is anything other than an invention by the programmer, and the universal-subtraction belief may be a result of modern users trying to rationalize the syntax of Roman numerals.