What does "=--([Cell Reference])" do?
 

I've seen some posts referencing a spreadsheet function I've never seen
before. The function is two dashes "--" followed by a cell or range
reference. I've played with it a little bit, but can't find out exactly what
it is supposed to do, because it does different things in different places.
I'm not using it for anything, I just like to learn new things.

What does "=--([Cell Reference])" do?
 

The double unary minus (--) converts TRUE and FALSE values to 1s and
0s respectively, so that they can be used in normal arithmetic. It can
also be used to convert numbers which are text values into proper
numbers.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Sep 18, 4:10*pm, Ssverret
wrote:
I've seen some posts referencing a spreadsheet function I've never seen
before. *The function is two dashes "--" followed by a cell or range
reference. *I've played with it a little bit, but can't find out exactly what
it is supposed to do, because it does different things in different places. *
I'm not using it for anything, I just like to learn new things.

What does "=--([Cell Reference])" do?
 

That is actual double negation. It is used to coerce non numbers into numbers
or to coerce true / false into 1 and 0.

You can do the same thing by multiplying by 1 or such but the nice part of
double negation is that it is an immediate clue that you need to coerce
something to a number as opposed to perform a mathematic operation to it.
--
HTH...

Jim Thomlinson


"Ssverret" wrote:

I've seen some posts referencing a spreadsheet function I've never seen
before. The function is two dashes "--" followed by a cell or range
reference. I've played with it a little bit, but can't find out exactly what
it is supposed to do, because it does different things in different places.
I'm not using it for anything, I just like to learn new things.

What does "=--([Cell Reference])" do?
 

"Pete_UK" wrote:

The double unary minus (--) converts TRUE and FALSE values to 1s and
0s respectively, so that they can be used in normal arithmetic. It can
also be used to convert numbers which are text values into proper
numbers.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Sep 18, 4:10 pm, Ssverret
wrote:
I've seen some posts referencing a spreadsheet function I've never seen
before. The function is two dashes "--" followed by a cell or range
reference. I've played with it a little bit, but can't find out exactly what
it is supposed to do, because it does different things in different places.
I'm not using it for anything, I just like to learn new things.

Thanks for your help Pete and Jim, I tried it a few times and it worked
perfectly. I had a previous method for turning text into numbers, but this
one is better. Steve