That shouldn't happen, try pasting it into the formula bar, rather than
direct cell entry.

--
HTH

Bob

(there's no email, no snail mail, but somewhere should be gmail in my addy)

Very interesting! Never saw the -- in XL before. It does create a
problem though in that it automatically merges 2 cells when I paste it
in. Why is this and is there a way to put this formula in a single
cell?