Sorry didn't mean to send an empty reply.

Your specific question has to do with "nesting" which
the same as you learned about when you learned algebra.

Would suggest looking up the following in your Excel Help (F1)

nesting
order of operations
parentheses calculation
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HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm