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

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.

date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 07:57:02 -0700 (PDT)   author:   Jaak De Vuyst

Re: Result of formula not displayed (rather the formula itself is displayed)   

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

date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 12:43:06 -0700 (PDT)   author:   Harald Battran

Re: Result of formula not displayed (rather the formula itself is displayed)   

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


"Jaak De Vuyst"  wrote in message 
news:66c9f4ba-ec95-4073-852e-11aec9e7911a@i76g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> 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.

date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 09:36:05 +1000   author:   MartinW lid

Re: Result of formula not displayed (rather the formula itself is displayed)   

On Jul 4, 7:57 am, Jaak De Vuyst  wrote:
> 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.

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

date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 17:22:29 -0700 (PDT)   author:   unknown

Re: Result of formula not displayed (rather the formula itself is displayed)   

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

date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 23:36:57 -0700 (PDT)   author:   Harald Battran

Re: Result of formula not displayed (rather the formula itself is displayed)   

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

Jaak De Vuyst.

date: Sat, 5 Jul 2008 00:00:28 -0700 (PDT)   author:   Jaak De Vuyst