they are double minus signs. used to convert the string into a numeric
value..for example

=--"4/26/2006"
is the same as
=38833

but is more visually understandable.
--
Gary's Student


"WLMPilot" wrote:

I spotted this in a questions and want to know what the dashes are for. I
have also seen dashes used in the SUMPRODUCT function. This is copied &
pasted to show entire question/answer

QUESTION:
=IF(AND(A4="4/12/2006",A4<="9/12/2006"),"49")

This should show next week as 'Week 49' but doesn't. I want to add another
three IF to this string so that I can get the month sorted out in Week order?

ANSWER:
Try it as:
=IF(AND(A4=--"4/12/2006",A4<=--"9/12/2006"),49)