Long formulas...... frustrated

[jman6120]

I often find myself faced with fairly long formula in a cell. This by itself
isn't a problem, but usually these formulas have many nested "IF" statements,
and are logically & arithmatically complex. I have gone to the Microsoft
site, and used Excel's help to find a better way to analyze, edit and debug
long formulas. I haven't found that the standard options still leave a lot to be desired!
Am I alone experiencing this frustration? I have done quite a bit of searching
and still no luck. Can anyone on the board point me to a good solution
or better still share the name of any tools that you know of, that addresses
working with long, complex formulas?

 

[SydneyGeek]

There's been a bit of debate around this question. Options include

F9 in the formula -- evaluates what you highlight
Formula auditing tool -- sounds like you've been there
Break up the formula into multiple cells. Yes it's a bit ugly but you can isolate and test the logic independent of the other pieces (and hide the columns). Then the If formula that pulls it together can be much simpler, and debugging is less of a headache.

Denis

 

[Domski]

When editing a formula you can press Alt+Enter to break the formula up onto more than one line which can make it easier to read sometimes.

Dom