excel 2003 does anyone know if there us an order that formulas have to be
entered can someone tell me what they are and why regards and thanks for your
time I know Microsoft refer to them as BOMDAS whatever that means

BOMDAS = Brackets, Of, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction

Nothing particularly Microsoft about this. It's been taught in primary
school maths for decades.




"Samantha" wrote in message
...
excel 2003 does anyone know if there us an order that formulas have to be
entered can someone tell me what they are and why regards and thanks for
your
time I know Microsoft refer to them as BOMDAS whatever that means

Ok well thanks but the question is is there an order of precedence when doing
calculations like do you have to multply before u divide before you add and
subtract in a formula. Some of us are quite alot older and cant remember
primary school stuff thanks anyway

"Jezebel" wrote:

BOMDAS = Brackets, Of, Multiplication, Division, Addition, and Subtraction

Nothing particularly Microsoft about this. It's been taught in primary
school maths for decades.




"Samantha" wrote in message
...
excel 2003 does anyone know if there us an order that formulas have to be
entered can someone tell me what they are and why regards and thanks for
your
time I know Microsoft refer to them as BOMDAS whatever that means

Samantha wrote...
Ok well thanks but the question is is there an order of precedence when doing
calculations like do you have to multply before u divide before you add and
subtract in a formula. Some of us are quite alot older and cant remember
primary school stuff thanks anyway
....

Parentheses, when present, always determine precedence. That is,
(1+2)*3 necessarily means evaluate 1+2 before multiplying the result by
3. Exponentiation takes precedence over
multiplication/division/addition/subtraction, multiplication and
division take precedence over addition and subtraction. Aside from
that, Excel evaluates *strictly* left to right, so 2/3*4 is always the
same as (2/3)*4 and never like 2/(3*4). This is most noticeable in
exponentiation, in which 2^3^4 evaluates as (2^3)^4 rather than
2^(3^4).

But the *BIG* difference between Excel and most other programming
languages and most textbook mathematical conventions is the sign takes
precedence over exponentiation, i.e., -3^2 evaluates as (-3)^2 rather
than as -(3^2).

So

-3^2/4*5-6+7

evaluates as

((((-3)^2)/4)*5-6)+7

and

-5^4+3/2*7-6*8

evaluates as

(((-5)^4)+((3/2)*7))-(6*8)

Ok well thanks but the question is is there an order of precedence when
doing
calculations like do you have to multply before u divide before you add
and
subtract in a formula.

Yes there is: BOMDAS.

On Thu, 10 Nov 2005 16:01:02 -0800, "Samantha"
wrote:

excel 2003 does anyone know if there us an order that formulas have to be
entered can someone tell me what they are and why regards and thanks for your
time I know Microsoft refer to them as BOMDAS whatever that means

Type "calculation operators" or "precedence" into the HELP bar; and select
About calculation operators. It will give you information on the order in
which calculations are performed. And also the use of parentheses.


--ron

thanks harlan you have been the most wonderful help. appreciate it

"Harlan Grove" wrote:

Samantha wrote...
Ok well thanks but the question is is there an order of precedence when doing
calculations like do you have to multply before u divide before you add and
subtract in a formula. Some of us are quite alot older and cant remember
primary school stuff thanks anyway
....

Parentheses, when present, always determine precedence. That is,
(1+2)*3 necessarily means evaluate 1+2 before multiplying the result by
3. Exponentiation takes precedence over
multiplication/division/addition/subtraction, multiplication and
division take precedence over addition and subtraction. Aside from
that, Excel evaluates *strictly* left to right, so 2/3*4 is always the
same as (2/3)*4 and never like 2/(3*4). This is most noticeable in
exponentiation, in which 2^3^4 evaluates as (2^3)^4 rather than
2^(3^4).

But the *BIG* difference between Excel and most other programming
languages and most textbook mathematical conventions is the sign takes
precedence over exponentiation, i.e., -3^2 evaluates as (-3)^2 rather
than as -(3^2).

So

-3^2/4*5-6+7

evaluates as

((((-3)^2)/4)*5-6)+7

and

-5^4+3/2*7-6*8

evaluates as

(((-5)^4)+((3/2)*7))-(6*8)

In Math, the actual order of precidence is BODMAS, I dont know why in
excel the order would be BOMDAS

(Although the results are the same)

Is it just an American thing?


--
Daminc
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Daminc wrote...
In Math, the actual order of precidence is BODMAS, I dont know why in
excel the order would be BOMDAS

(Although the results are the same)

Wrong. 2/3*3 is 2/9 while 2*3/3 is 2 in BOMDAS but 2 in both cases in
BODMAS. Since this 'works' so well for multiplication/division, it's a
mystery why it isn't BODMSA so 2-3+3 and 2+3-3 were always 2, which a
*strict* interpretation of BODMAS would force the first to be -4.

Is it just an American thing?

Nope, it's a programming thing. Programmers, being cleverer than most
mathematicians, realized that multiplication/division and
addition/subtraction are like operations, so few if any programming
languages (in which body I'd include Excel's formulas) give different
precedence to * or / over the other or + or - over the other. Instead,
programming languages determine the order of operations by what's
called associativity. Left associativity means a*b*c is evaluated as
(a*b)*c. Right associativity means a*b*c is evaluated as a*(b*c). Most
languages use left associativity for *, /, + and -. Those languages
that provide an exponentiation operator (^ in BASIC, ** in FORTRAN)
generally give it right associativity. Excel is unlike normal
programming languages in this regard.

Anyway, that's why 1/2*3/4 and 1*2/3*4 respectively evaluate as
((1/2)*3)/4 and ((1*2)/3)*4, which happens to be the same way they'd
evaluate in BASIC, Pascal, C, C++, Java, FORTRAN, Perl, Python, REXX,
Ruby, awk, . . .

It's a computer thing. Which, since the rest of the world basically sat
back and allowed Americans and some Canadians to design most
programming languages, may mean it is an American thing. Shame Algol
never took off.

Cheers for the clarification ;)


--
Daminc
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