"=+" Why?

[MrKowz]

Good Monday all,

I have been going through some Excel files on my network drives and I notice that a LOT of people use "=+" to start a lot of their formulas. What exactly does this do? I see entries such as =+Now(), =+A1+B1, and other really (seemingly pointless) things.

Thank you, and may the coffee flow freely this morning!

 

[Jonmo1]

I think it's Old School stuff. Older apps (i don't know which, I'm just a young whippersnapper) used the + sign to begin a formula...

so you would type +5*10 or whatever, the + began the formula...

some people just got into the habbit of doing that.
Now in Excel when you do that, it still works, but adds the =

So if you type
+Now()

it converts to

=+Now()

 

[MrKowz]

Good to know! Do you think that having a spreadsheet littered with these "=+" would have any detrimental effect? Or do you think I can basically ignore them.

 

[schielrn]

You can basically ignore them. They should cause no harm. I believe they date back to Lotus 123 and have gotten translated that way through Excel conversion.

If you try to enter a formula with =+ it will drop the plus anyways now.

 

[Jonmo1]

I can't imagine any detrimental effects. You should be able to just ignore them.

All it's really doing is saying the formula is beginning with a Positive #.

 

[mikerickson]

It pre-dates Lotus. PractiCalc used that syntax. At the time, I was a C-64 user, so I'm not sure if VisiCalc used it.

 

[schielrn]

Thanks for clarifying that mikerickson. I figured I shouldn't have butted in with a comment of something that I have no clue about or pre-dates me.

 

[mikerickson]

Not at all.
Compatabilty with Lotus is probably the reason that Excel supports that syntax.

The history of the synatx, predates the ability to Copy from one application, Paste into a different App. And cross-application similarity was rare.

The popularity of Lotus was probably what motivated MicroSoft to support that syntax.

 

[riaz]

If you try to enter a formula with =+ it will drop the plus anyways now.

If you enter =-1, it will retain both.
If you enter just -1, it will not put in an = sign for you.

I prefer to put in an = sign, just in case I need to add to the number or formula later. If you put in just 1, it will take it and treat it as a number, but if you edit it to say 1+2, it becomes text. If I input the original as =1, then editing to add +2 works, otherwise its the old F2 home = End + and then you can do your additions.

 

[pgc01]

Hi

There's also another reason.

The keyboard layout in many languages (at least European) has the equal sign in a Shift position.

Since excel doesn't mind if you start a formula with a "+" and nature taught us to follow the path of least resistance you sometimes choose the "+" as it doesn't need the Shift key.