Why put a plus sign after = sign in a formula

[kMan]

Very basic question guys and gals,

I have a formula like this in, say, Cell A2:
=+A1

What does the "+" sign do? I think I asked this question in a workshop ages
ago, but forgot the answer I got

Thanks for ya 'elp....

 

[JMB]

it does nothing. in Lotus, formulas were preceded with a + instead of =

when you begin a formula with +, XL automatically adds the = sign. most
likely to provide a smoother transition from Lotus to XL.

 

[Shane Devenshire]

Hi,

The plus sign serves no function at all, in fact it is a waste. This
usually appears because the Excel user formally was a Lotus 1-2-3 user and
in that program you started most formulas with +. If you start the formulas
with + in Excel, Excel converts this to =+.

Here are some examples of other bad practices:

=SUM(A1+A3) should be =A1+A3
=SUM(A1-A3) should be =A1-A3
=+SUM(A1:A4) should be =SUM(A1:A4)

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire