Why put + at the start of a formula?

Smitty

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• Jun 9, 2004

• #2

Welcome to the Board!

The + is a throwback to Lotus 1-2-3. It's not necessary in Excel, but Excel will recognize it.

In Excel start a formula with =, or @ (another throwback to Lotus, but Excel will convert it to =).

Hope that helps,

Smitty

 

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P

plettieri

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• Jun 9, 2004

• #3

Hi:

Welcome to the board!!

I don't the techical answer, but it seems to denote whether the first numer (in your example) is treated as positive or negative in formula.

plettieri

 

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C

CliveInTokyo

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• Jun 9, 2004

• #4

Thanks chaps

 

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Todd Bardoni

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• Jun 9, 2004

• #5

Smitty is correct. It's a throw back to Lotus. + denotes the beginning of a formula.

 

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Smitty

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• Jun 9, 2004

• #6

As a side note, in Lotus you could simply enter +1+2 and get 3. It kept 10-key entering simpler.

You can do that in Excel if you goto Tools-->Options-->Transition and check the Transition options.

It's helpful if you have a workbook that requires a lot of flat-out data entry. (Although I never use it, some of our accounting folks do to total cash receipts, etc.)

Smitty

 

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Todd Bardoni

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• Jun 9, 2004

• #7

pennysaver said:

As a side note, in Lotus you could simply enter +1+2 and get 3. It kept 10-key entering simpler.

You can do that in Excel if you goto Tools-->Options-->Transition and check the Transition options.

It's helpful if you have a workbook that requires a lot of flat-out data entry. (Although I never use it, some of our accounting folks do to total cash receipts, etc.)

Smitty

Click to expand...

Heya, Smitty. I don't believe you need to turn on Transition options to do:- +1+2 and get 3. I'm pretty sure Excel recognizes this. Maybe I'm misunderstanding.

 

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Tom Urtis

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• Jun 9, 2004

• #8

A bit more background:

The leading "+" is for compatibility with Lotus, which does nothing good or bad to Excel formulas, except that it looks odd. Lotus formulas began with "+", "-", or "@". If the formula has a "-" sign in front of it then that would be significant, but a "+" sign for Excel means nothing significant, in your case sort of like saying =0+k6+k12 . As you can see, since the leading "+" does nothing and means nothing, it can be deleted.

 

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erik.van.geit

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• Jun 10, 2004

• #9

Practical approach:
type +1+2 in a cell and you'll see how Excel changes it to =1+2
that's how it behaves on my machine

kind regards,
Erik

 

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I

inarbeth

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• Jun 10, 2004

• #10

Todd Bardoni said:

Smitty is correct. It's a throw back to Lotus. + denotes the beginning of a formula.

Click to expand...

Todd, what do you mean "Death to the apostrophe!"? You've used one - and correctly too!

 

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