Special symbols in Excel worksheets?

[Guest]

You folks (that answer our dumb questions) are brilliant. Having said that,
many times the answer to a question ( the sample provided) includes some
strange symbols (such as --, or &, $$, etc). How can I find a list of these
symbols and whey they need to be used?

FOr example, when doing a COUNTIF with Dates I have to do:
=COUNTIF(a1:a50, "<" &DATE()-90)
but in IF,
=IF(a1:a50, < DATE()-90,Bad,Good)

NOt sure why I need quotes and & in COUNTIF but not in IF?

Thanks,

Kevin

 

[Guest]

If you find a list with all of the special symbols, please post it so we can
find it.
the specific difference between countif and if, is that the criteria in
countif if is not a cell reference, needs to in a text format, (why I don't
know) In the if statement the equation is fine.

(By the way you would have problems with both of your example equations)

 

[Guest]

Ooops! I meant TODAY(), but was in a hurry.

Kevin

 

[Gord Dibben]

A brief list of these symbols(operators) can be found in Help "about calculation
operators" and/or " types or operators"

The $ sign operation/meaning can be found under "absolute cell references"


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Pete_UK]

A few more under wildcards, and some others under format - custom
formatting.

Pete