Why do people use =+A2 or =+d3? What does the "+" reference?
 

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Why do people use =+A2 or =+d3? What does the "+" reference?
 

The + does nothing in those cases. It means that whoever wrote the formula
has forgotten that they're using Excel, rather than an earlier Lotus
spreadsheet package.
--
David Biddulph

Chris 21222222 wrote:
Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Why do people use =+A2 or =+d3? What does the "+" reference?
 

Throwback to Lotus 123 and completely UN necessary.

--
Don Guillett
Microsoft MVP Excel
SalesAid Software

"Chris 21222222" <Chris wrote in message
...
Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Why do people use =+A2 or =+d3? What does the "+" reference?
 

hi
the plus sign is from lotus and is not necessary in excel.
in lotus, if you put 2+2 in a cell, lotus does the math and displays 4. in
excel you must preceed all math computation with the = sign.
and in lotus when using cell references like A2, lotus does not do the math
unless you preceed the references with a plus sign ie +A1+A2. it a sign to
lotus to do math.
some people who have migrated over to excel sometimes still use the + sign
in thier formulas. it doesn't hurt but in excel it's not necessary. so if you
wish you can remove the plus signs with not harm done.

regards
FSt1

"Chris 21222222" wrote:

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Why do people use =+A2 or =+d3? What does the "+" reference?
 

"Chris 21222222" <Chris wrote:
Subject: Why do people use =+A2 or =+d3? What does the "+" reference?

(Why do people put their question only in the Subject line instead of [also]
the body of the message? ;-)

Anyone who enters =+A3 manually is probably emulating Excel, thinking it is
required.

The real question is: why does Excel convert formulas of the form +A1+B1 to
=+A1+B1 instead of simply =A1+B1?

As others have noted, the "+formula" syntax comes from Lotus 123, another
spreadsheet application.

But past discussions of this, someone has also pointed out that that
notation is useful, even in Excel, when using a numeric keypad to enter
numeric-only formulas. The numeric keypad has "+", but typically not "=".

In any case, when Excel changes the "+formula", there is no reason for it to
retain the "+". It could simply substitute an "=" for "+".