Evaluating Formulas

[Jeff]

I have a column (J) in a spreadsheet that is to be a
formula calculation based on another column (B) in that
row. There are more than 7 possible formula options so I
can't use an if statement to select the appropriate
formula. I have tried a lookup table where the match on
column B allows me to select the appropriate fourmula in
(text format) to insert in column J. My problem is that I
can't get excel to automatically calculate the formula
after it has evaluated the lookup. If I edit column J and
hit f9 TWICE it works. The first hit of f9 evaluates the
lookup and the second f9 evaluates the formula returned by
the lookup. My question is how can I make excel do the
equivalent of hitting calc (f9) twice without resorting to
a macro? Is there a calculate or evaluate function I am
missing?

A very simple expample of the calculate problem is as
follows:

A1 contains 2
A2 contains ="=a1*2"

A2 will display =a1*2
if you edit A2 and hit F9 to calc it will display =a1*2
if you hit f9 again it will display the correct answer 4

 

[Harlan Grove]

I have a column (J) in a spreadsheet that is to be a
formula calculation based on another column (B) in that
row. There are more than 7 possible formula options so I
can't use an if statement to select the appropriate
formula. I have tried a lookup table where the match on
column B allows me to select the appropriate fourmula in
(text format) to insert in column J. My problem is that I
can't get excel to automatically calculate the formula
after it has evaluated the lookup. If I edit column J and
hit f9 TWICE it works. The first hit of f9 evaluates the
lookup and the second f9 evaluates the formula returned by
the lookup. My question is how can I make excel do the
equivalent of hitting calc (f9) twice without resorting to
a macro? Is there a calculate or evaluate function I am
missing?

...

What are you *really* trying to do? It's very likely someone else has figured
out how to do it and would show you if they had enough details.

 

[MaxwellSmarty]

Looks like you have your calculation on "Manual". Goto
options in TOOLS and click on calc. then click on
Automatic rather than Manual

Now you should ba able to automatically get the results
without pressing F9 twice.