Curiosity

J

Josh Sale

Here's a little curiosity I just ran into and I wonder if anybody can shed
some light on it? If you:

enter "+3+2" into a cell it becomes a formula;

enter "+3-2" into a cell it becomes a formula;

enter "+3*2" into a cell it becomes a formula;

enter "+3/2" into a General cell it becomes a formula;

enter "+3/2" into a Number cell it is simply evaluated.

Does anybody know why the last case above is treated differently than all of
the other cases mentioned?

I gather that treating a leading "+" as more or less equivalent to an "="
sign goes back to Lotus 1-2-3 compatibility.

TIA,

josh
 
T

Thyag

Here's a little curiosity I just ran into and I wonder if anybody can shed
some light on it? If you:

enter "+3+2" into a cell it becomes a formula;

enter "+3-2" into a cell it becomes a formula;

enter "+3*2" into a cell it becomes a formula;

enter "+3/2" into a General cell it becomes a formula;

enter "+3/2" into a Number cell it is simply evaluated.

Does anybody know why the last case above is treated differently than all of
the other cases mentioned?

I gather that treating a leading "+" as more or less equivalent to an "="
sign goes back to Lotus 1-2-3 compatibility.

TIA,

josh
Click to expand...

Hi Josh,

If the formatting is in text then the formula remains as a text.
If the formatting is in number or general the formula gets converted
to its resultant.

Thanks,
Thyag
 
B

Bernard Liengme

Very odd. I get the saem in XL2007
By guess is becuase / is has two uses (date & division), the programmer did
something different with it conpared to other operators.
best wishes
 
P

Peo Sjoblom

1. Not that it has anything to do with this but you are using Lotus 123's
way
In Excel the default way to enter a formula is to use the equal sign and
given MS history
for support of other programs one day you might get an error using + to
enter a formula

=3+2

not

+3+2


regardless these cells where you get the formula as a result must be
formatted as text
 
J

Josh Sale

Try it Thyag ... I think you'll find that your statement "if the formatting
is in number or general the formula gets converted" is not correct. Better
yet, try all of the cases I describe.
 
J

Josh Sale

It is odd isn't it? I verified the behavior is consistent starting with
XL97 all the way through to XL2007.

Interesting hypothesis regarding the "/" being interpreted as a date.

Thanks.

josh
 
J

Josh Sale

Yeah, I noted that this style of formula entry was implemented in Excel for
Lotus 1-2-3 compatibility in my original posting.
 
P

Peo Sjoblom

You are correct, the interesting thing is that if you check transition
formula entry under tools>options>transition it will work as expected for
number formats.
 
P

Peo Sjoblom

It must be a bug because it works if you check transition formula entry
under tools>options>transition
 
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