You're gonna need some VBA to evaluate the expression.

Option Explicit
Function Eval(myStr As String) As Variant
Eval = Application.Evaluate(myStr)
End Function


Then you'd use:

=eval(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(D4),"/","*")," ","+"))
in your cell.

You could do the substitutes in code, too. But then you couldn't use your
=eval() without those substitutions.

Option Explicit
Function Eval(myStr As String) As Variant
With Application
Eval = .Evaluate(.Substitute _
(.Substitute(.Trim(myStr), "/", "*"), " ", "+"))
End With
End Function

Then you'd use:
=eval(d4)

In either case...

If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

Short course:

Open your workbook.
Hit alt-f11 to get to the VBE (where macros/UDF's live)
hit ctrl-R to view the project explorer
Find your workbook.
should look like: VBAProject (yourfilename.xls)

right click on the project name
Insert, then Module
You should see the code window pop up on the right hand side

Paste the code in there.

Now go back to excel.
Into a test cell and type:
=eval(a1)


Neil wrote:

I have a list of quantites in one cell "D4"
"D4" = 6/6 3/2.6 5/1.2.
I need to sum each of these to a total so I use the following formula
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(TRIM(D4),"/","*")," ","+")
Result: "6*6+3*2.6+5*1.2"
How can I convert the result to a formula that would show the sum 49.8

Thanks for any help.

--

Dave Peterson