This expression:
F3:F838<121
expands into 836 true/falses (one for each cell in F3:F838)
The first minus changes true to -1 (and false to 0). The second minus changes
-1 to 1 (and 0 to 0).
=sumproduct() likes to work with numbers, so this is a quick way to change those
boolean values to numbers.
Bob Phillips explains =sumproduct() in much more detail he
http://www.xldynamic.com/source/xld.SUMPRODUCT.html
And J.E. McGimpsey has some notes at:
http://mcgimpsey.com/excel/formulae/doubleneg.html
LPS wrote:
Has anyone ever seen the use of "dashes" in functions or formulas before? I
have a user who has several instances where dashes have been used (someone
sent her the spreadsheet) and none of us have ever seen this before. An
example follows:
=SUMPRODUCT(--(F3:F838<121),--(E3:E838=1))
Any suggestions / explanations?
Thanks,
--
LPS
--
Dave Peterson