Formulas

[tstyles]

I am trying to create some formulas, taking information
from various columns, however I am unsure of what all the
different variations of formulas i.e what ( means or $
means) could you provide a list of all the meanings of
the symbols used in formulas.
Many thanks
Trudie

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
first starting point should always be the Excel-help. But also have a
look at:
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/relative.htm (for the $ sign)
http://www.contextures.com/functions.html

 

[JulieD]

it might help you more if you posted specific examples (please don't attach
a workbook) with the desired outcome stated and then we could come up with a
formula for you which you could then study ... but to answer your question -
some of the things you'll find in formulas & functions are:

= indicates that it is a formula or function
( ) used to specify the order that calculations are done in e.g. (1+2)*3
or to surround the parameters (arguments) of functions, e.g. SUM(A1:C1)
{} used to indicate an array - you probably don't want to go there
$ used to indicate that the element (either row or column or both) are
absolute not relative - used mainly when dragging formulas down columns or
across rows ... if you have =A1*B1 in cell C1 and drag this to C2 the
formula will change to =A2*B2 however, if you always want the formula to
reference A1 then =$A$1*B1 will drag to show =$A$1*B2
, used to separate parameters(arguments) of functions
+ addition symbol
- subtraction symbol
* multiplication symbol
/ division symbol
"" used to surround text - by themselves indicate a zero length text string
e.g. =IF(A1="cat","meow","") puts the word meow into the cell holding the
formula in cat appears in A1, otherwise nothing is entered into the cell.

Hope this helps
Cheers
JulieD

 

[Guest]

thanks that has really help me out.

-----Original Message-----
it might help you more if you posted specific examples (please don't attach
a workbook) with the desired outcome stated and then we could come up with a
formula for you which you could then study ... but to answer your question -
some of the things you'll find in formulas & functions are:

= indicates that it is a formula or function
( ) used to specify the order that calculations are done in e.g. (1+2)*3
or to surround the parameters (arguments) of functions, e.g. SUM(A1:C1)
{} used to indicate an array - you probably don't want to go there
$ used to indicate that the element (either row or column or both) are
absolute not relative - used mainly when dragging formulas down columns or
across rows ... if you have =A1*B1 in cell C1 and drag this to C2 the
formula will change to =A2*B2 however, if you always want the formula to
reference A1 then =$A$1*B1 will drag to show =$A$1*B2
, used to separate parameters(arguments) of functions
+ addition symbol
- subtraction symbol
* multiplication symbol
/ division symbol
"" used to surround text - by themselves indicate a zero length text string
e.g. =IF(A1="cat","meow","") puts the word meow into the cell holding the
formula in cat appears in A1, otherwise nothing is entered into the cell.

Hope this helps
Cheers
JulieD



"(e-mail address removed)"

 

[JulieD]

Hi

glad to assist, please feel free to post back with specifics and we'll see
if we can help.

Cheers
JulieD