Result of formula not displayed (rather the formula itself isdisplayed)

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jaak De Vuyst
  • Start date Start date
J

Jaak De Vuyst

Hopefully a rather straightforward question, but I just don't seem to
find an easy fix:
I have an XLS where some cells will not display the result of a
formula, but rather the formula as such.
On other words: if the contents of the cells would be:
cell A2: 3
cell A5: 7

if I enter =A2+A5 in another cell, I would expect it to display 10.
Yet, some cells display =A2+A5
That same formula does work correctly in most other cells. So I guess
this has something to do with the formatting of the cells. Yet, the
formatting of the cells is "number", and I have no quotes or blanks
preceeding my formula.

How can I fix this.
 
Hi,

also found Excel 2007 to behave strangely sometimes.

Experienced the similar problem and had to reformat the cells with the
standard format.

It seems that in some cases cells are being treated as text-format and
therefore the content is displayed rather than the formulas result.

I hope that helps

Harald Battran
 
Hi Jaak,

If you input a formula into a cell formatted as Text it will display
as you mention. Simply changing the format of the cell to number
won't change anything, you need to re-commit the formula.

To re-commit you can retype the formula or just
click in the cell, tap F2 and then enter.

HTH
Martin
 
Hopefully a rather straightforward question, but I just don't seem to
find an easy fix:
I have an XLS where some cells will not display the result of a
formula, but rather the formula as such.
On other words: if the contents of the cells would be:
cell A2: 3
cell A5: 7

if I enter =A2+A5 in another cell, I would expect it to display 10.
Yet, some cells display =A2+A5
That same formula does work correctly in most other cells. So I guess
this has something to do with the formatting of the cells. Yet, the
formatting of the cells is "number", and I have no quotes or blanks
preceeding my formula.

How can I fix this.
Click to expand...

In addition to what the others said, make sure you don't have a space
before your equal sign.
 
Hi,

In addition to the idea to change the format and then recomit the
formula with F2 or going in the cell and press enter I suggest that
you could do the following:

First format the cell(s) to the number format or the standard format.
Then copy the cell(s) and "paste special" (sorry not sure what the
english menu is looking like). Select the "formulas only" and hope for
the best.

Let us know if it works.

Harald Battran
 
First changing the cell format (to number) and then entering the
formula indeed did the trick. Thanks folks.

Jaak De Vuyst.
 
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