May I know what is the difference between the formula start with "=if" and "=+if"?? Is it a new feature?

Thanks!

Wendy

On Wed, 28 Jan 2004 20:01:12 -0800, "Wendy"
wrote:

May I know what is the difference between the formula start with "=if" and "=+if"?? Is it a new feature?

I take it that you're talking about a worksheet formula rather than
VBA code. (I only mention that because this is the programming group.)

There's no real difference. It's just that if you're manually typing a
formula (as opposed to using the function wizard), you have to type a
mathematical sign (such as =) first to tell Excel that you're typing a
formula rather than a piece of text.

Rather than typing =, the key for which is in a rather inconvenient
location, you can also type a + sign. Excel will then add the = in
front of it, resulting in the format that you're asking about.

And, as you can see if you have a standard keyboard, there's a honking
great [+] key just to the right of your numeric keypad; a location
much more accessible and convenient than the [=] key.

In other words, the formula was probably just entered by someone (like
me) who bangs away on the keyboard at a machine gun pace and would
rather move his or her finger a few millimetres rather than a few
centimetres.


---------------------------------------------------------
Hank Scorpio
scorpionet who hates spam is at iprimus.com.au (You know what to do.)
* Please keep all replies in this Newsgroup. Thanks! *

Wendy,

The plus sign in this context is redundant. It tells us that the result is
positive.
If the plus were a minus sign instead, it would tell us that the result is
negative.

As Hank pointed out, it's probably left over from a data entry shortcut.


The + here is a unary operator. To learn more about unary operators:
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:Unary+Operator

Rob



"Wendy" wrote in message
...
May I know what is the difference between the formula start with "=if" and
"=+if"?? Is it a new feature?

Thanks!

Wendy

Hank,
Thanks to your prompt reply

May I know which categories in the group would be the most appropriated place to go? Should it be under "General Question"

Cheer
Lily

On Fri, 30 Jan 2004 00:26:05 -0800, "Wendy"
wrote:

Hank,
Thanks to your prompt reply!

No problem!

May I know which categories in the group would be the most appropriated place to go? Should it be under "General Question"?

There's a number of Excel groups; 17 the last time I refreshed my
Groups list. Some are extremely obscure and have little traffic like
microsoft.public.excel.123quattro (which seems to carry little these
days aside from spam of the more distasteful type), and some you would
expect to be popular, but in reality carry only a (relatively) modest
amount of traffic (like microsoft.public.excel.charting).

The "Big Three", though, a
- microsoft.public.excel.misc;
- microsoft.public.excel.worksheet.functions; and
- microsoft.public.excel.programming, the group that you posted to.

They have by far the greatest amount of traffic, and are probably the
best ones to go to to get an answer quickly. (Some regulars probably
prowl all 17 groups, but more people would inhabit the big three.) As
an aside, I note that there's another newsgroup called
microsoft.public.excel which is marked as a new newsgroup in my list.
I don't recall seeing it before and don't know what its intended
purpose is, but then I was more or less off-line for two or three
months at the end of last year and may have missed its creation.

I'd probably have been inclined to post a question like yours in the
second of the three, since it specifically relates to a worksheet
function's syntax. If in doubt, though, go to Misc. (Definitely DON"T
post a question in multiple groups (unless you cross-post a single
message), because if you do someone in one group may answer the
question unaware that someone in another group has already done so.)

That having been said, no-one is likely to get their nose out of joint
if you simply post in the "wrong" group; it's just that it can be a
little confusing sometimes. The programming group is really for posts
about Visual Basic for Applications and the like, and I had to do a
double take to figure out whether you were referring to a VBA
expression, or to a worksheet formula. It's no biggie; it just makes
life easier if the questions flow to the group most suited to them.

(Disclaimer: This is just my opinion. Some may feel that you should
scour the 17 groups for the closest match. I don't think that it would
be an overwhelmingly popular approach, though, and clearly it's not
the approach that most people take. Indeed even those who post through
the Microsoft web interface to the newsgroups
(http://support.microsoft.com/newsgro...-us;newsgroups)
will find only 7 options.)

Cheers
Lily

---------------------------------------------------------
Hank Scorpio
scorpionet who hates spam is at iprimus.com.au (You know what to do.)
* Please keep all replies in this Newsgroup. Thanks! *