I was using IF on data which is mixed alpha and numeric (for example, some
cells were '3+4' , some 'S2' and some were '28') so I had formatted the
entire sheet as text.
When I tried to use IF, following the route of clicking on the Fx button
first, I found that the function performed correctly in the Function
Arguments dialog, but as soon as I clicked OK all I got was the text of the
function - not the result of the function - in the cell.
Reverting to General format fixed the problem; and since the source cells
were text, it seemed to understand that the destination would also be text.
I cannot find any reference to this problem in on-line help, so I thought I
should publicise it.
--
Ken Curwen

This worked by design.

If you format a cell as text, XL assumes you intend for the contents to
be text. Cells formatted as Text, or cells prefixed by an apostrophe (')
are not evaluated by the parser to see if the entry is a formula, date,
etc.

If it didn't work this way, it would be difficult, if not impossible to
enter text starting with an equals sign into a cell.

In article ,
kennoc wrote:

I cannot find any reference to this problem in on-line help, so I thought I
should publicise it.

I'm not sure I understand what the "problem" is. If a cell is formatted as
Text, then it seems logical that anything entered into that cell should be
treated as such. Thus, an equals sign is simply just that. An equals sign.

HTH,
Elkar


"kennoc" wrote:

I was using IF on data which is mixed alpha and numeric (for example, some
cells were '3+4' , some 'S2' and some were '28') so I had formatted the
entire sheet as text.
When I tried to use IF, following the route of clicking on the Fx button
first, I found that the function performed correctly in the Function
Arguments dialog, but as soon as I clicked OK all I got was the text of the
function - not the result of the function - in the cell.
Reverting to General format fixed the problem; and since the source cells
were text, it seemed to understand that the destination would also be text.
I cannot find any reference to this problem in on-line help, so I thought I
should publicise it.
--
Ken Curwen