I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

Nothing, it is probably because the spreadsheet was once created in Lotus
123 or the user started out with Lotus 123 and is still used to it

It won't do anything whatsoever.



--
Regards,

Peo Sjoblom



"j" wrote in message
...
I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

Relic of Lotus usage. Does nothing.
--
David Biddulph

"j" wrote in message
...
I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

It irritates most excel users.

My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123.

They used to write their formulas like:
+a1+a2

When they started using excel, they remembered that formulas start with equal
signs. But they don't remember to remove the ones that aren't required.



j wrote:

I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

--

Dave Peterson

Isn't it also that when you open a workbook in Excel originally created in
123 it will look like that?

Peo


"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
It irritates most excel users.

My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123.

They used to write their formulas like:
+a1+a2

When they started using excel, they remembered that formulas start with
equal
signs. But they don't remember to remove the ones that aren't required.



j wrote:

I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

--

Dave Peterson

I don't know.

It's been a very longgggggggggggg time since I used lotus 123.

But the formulas looked excel-ish if I used excel to save the file as *.wk3 and
reopened.



Peo Sjoblom wrote:

Isn't it also that when you open a workbook in Excel originally created in
123 it will look like that?

Peo

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
It irritates most excel users.

My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123.

They used to write their formulas like:
+a1+a2

When they started using excel, they remembered that formulas start with
equal
signs. But they don't remember to remove the ones that aren't required.



j wrote:

I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

--

Dave Peterson

--

Dave Peterson

My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123

When I was at work we had a secretary who habitually wrote formulas like
that. I asked her if she originally started using Lotus and she replied,
"What is Lotus?" She said that it just felt right to write it that way.

I think that it may be related to the other thing that newcomers do in that
they tend to write =SUM(A1+B1) because they feel that you have to coerce XL
into performing a calculation.

--

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings


Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk


"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
It irritates most excel users.

My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123.

They used to write their formulas like:
+a1+a2

When they started using excel, they remembered that formulas start with
equal
signs. But they don't remember to remove the ones that aren't required.



j wrote:

I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

--

Dave Peterson

It's not just Lotus - in Quattro Pro (and other spreadsheets) you had
to indicate that the cell was to be used for a calculation, so you
started a function with @ and you had to have an operator in front of
an operand, eg +3-2. Excel's equals sign is just the same - it tells
the spreadsheet that there is a formula in the cell rather than a
label or a number. I don't know why MS can't program Excel to get rid
of the redundant + in formulae like =+A1, because if you type in
@LEFT(A1,3) it will show this as =LEFT(A1,3).

Pete

On Jun 28, 10:12 pm, "Sandy Mann" wrote:
My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123

When I was at work we had a secretary who habitually wrote formulas like
that. I asked her if she originally started using Lotus and she replied,
"What is Lotus?" She said that it just felt right to write it that way.

I think that it may be related to the other thing that newcomers do in that
they tend to write =SUM(A1+B1) because they feel that you have to coerce XL
into performing a calculation.

--

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings


Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk

"Dave Peterson" wrote in message

...



It irritates most excel users.

My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123.

They used to write their formulas like:
+a1+a2

When they started using excel, they remembered that formulas start with
equal
signs. But they don't remember to remove the ones that aren't required.

j wrote:

I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

--

Dave Peterson- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

hi.
I still use lotus at time for special function. I am not aware of lotus
using a preceeding + sign for any reason. lotus uses the @ symbol instead of
the = sign.

"j" wrote:

I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

I'm not sure it's related to using a function.

I know I used to write my formulas (in 123) like: +a1+a2



FSt1 wrote:

hi.
I still use lotus at time for special function. I am not aware of lotus
using a preceeding + sign for any reason. lotus uses the @ symbol instead of
the = sign.

"j" wrote:

I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

--

Dave Peterson

I've seen new users who thought they had to click that big Sigma button to
start a formula. It puts =SUM() into the cell, and the user puts whatever
formula they want inside the parentheses.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


"Sandy Mann" wrote in message
...
My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123

When I was at work we had a secretary who habitually wrote formulas like
that. I asked her if she originally started using Lotus and she replied,
"What is Lotus?" She said that it just felt right to write it that way.

I think that it may be related to the other thing that newcomers do in
that they tend to write =SUM(A1+B1) because they feel that you have to
coerce XL into performing a calculation.

--

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings


Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk


"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
It irritates most excel users.

My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123.

They used to write their formulas like:
+a1+a2

When they started using excel, they remembered that formulas start with
equal
signs. But they don't remember to remove the ones that aren't required.



j wrote:

I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

--

Dave Peterson

I never thought of that - it make sense

--
Regards,


Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings


Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk


"Jon Peltier" wrote in message
...
I've seen new users who thought they had to click that big Sigma button to
start a formula. It puts =SUM() into the cell, and the user puts whatever
formula they want inside the parentheses.

- Jon
-------
Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP
Tutorials and Custom Solutions
Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com
_______


"Sandy Mann" wrote in message
...
My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123

When I was at work we had a secretary who habitually wrote formulas like
that. I asked her if she originally started using Lotus and she replied,
"What is Lotus?" She said that it just felt right to write it that way.

I think that it may be related to the other thing that newcomers do in
that they tend to write =SUM(A1+B1) because they feel that you have to
coerce XL into performing a calculation.

--

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings


Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk


"Dave Peterson" wrote in message
...
It irritates most excel users.

My theory is that it's a hold over from users of Lotus 123.

They used to write their formulas like:
+a1+a2

When they started using excel, they remembered that formulas start with
equal
signs. But they don't remember to remove the ones that aren't required.



j wrote:

I sometimes see other people's Excel formulas that have a reference
with
=+A1

instead of
=A1

What does the plus sign do?

I can't find this anywhere.

--

Dave Peterson