what is the ? used for in a formula in excel?

[Guest]

Can someone tell me what the "?" is used for in excel formulas? i.e
=IF(ISBLANK(G5),"",(SUM(F$5:F5)-SUM(G$5:G5))/SUM(F$5:F5))
Thanks.

 

[Chip Pearson]

Are you talking about the $ character? This character fixes that
part of the cell reference, so it is not changed during
copy/paste or fill operations. See
www.cpearson.com/excel/relative.htm for more details.


--
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com

 

[Myrna Larson]

In a word, it's either part of text, or it doesn't appear.