If there is a '<' sign in a cell, can the cell be included in a function?

Not when the function expects a numeric value.
You could use MID(A30,2,LEN(A30)-1) in place of just A3 which has <5.
For example SQRT(MID(A30,2,LEN(A30)-1))
or 2*MID(A30,2,LEN(A30)-1) which is not a function but a formula.
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
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"Michelle" wrote in message
...
If there is a '<' sign in a cell, can the cell be included in a function?

Bernard Liengme wrote...
Not when the function expects a numeric value.
You could use MID(A30,2,LEN(A30)-1) in place of just A3 which has <5.
For example SQRT(MID(A30,2,LEN(A30)-1))
or 2*MID(A30,2,LEN(A30)-1) which is not a function but a formula.
best wishes

If you want short, MID(x,2,1024) would give the same result. If you
want simple, SUBSTITUTE(x,"<","") would give the same result. On the
other hand, if all the '<' is supposed to achieve is a visual display,
and the remainder of the cell's contents would be numeric, there's also
the possibility of using a custom number format like "\<General". Then
such cells could be used directly in other formulas while also
displaying as desired.