Significance of =+ in formulas

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tro34

Is there any significance to the =+ in the following formula?

=+G70/(1-$E$76)

I'm updating a fairly complex spreadsheet and I keep running into
this. As far as I can tell it behaves the same as = by itself.
 
Hi
it's the same as '='. Possible a user who has used Lotus Notes did
enter this combination of '=+'
So you can just delete the '+' sign in these cases
 
It is a throwback to Lotus, and is not necessary.

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)
 
How lovely to see other people using that. No, it wont affect the formula
other than beautifying it a bit. It is likely from a person who cut his
teeth using Lotus 123, where formulas are started with a +.

I was monkeying around with it a few months ago, and did discover a time
when it reacted differently than using = .. I think it might have been when
using quotes or something, but I really should have written it down because
now I can't remember!
 
I'm sure you know, but Excel automatically adds the = part in. I usually
start my formula like +SUM .. and when I press enter, it becomes =+SUM
 
probably where the cell is formatted as text.

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)
 
It's quite common to do this, since entering the = is a two-hand operation
and there isn't any on the numeric keypad. So one enters
+A1+B1
instead and let Excel do the rest. Pretty quick.

Not that common, but frewuently done, is to enter a formula by clicking the
autosum button and then type the formula, resulting in stuff like
=SUM(A1-B1/2)
itself a meaningless statement, but you don't have to enter a = and it works
efficient enough in most cases. Most spreadsheets doesn't have a single
function in them, so recalculation speed isn't usually an issue ...

Best wishes Harald
 
No, it wasn't that.

I didn't explain very well, partially because I don't remember very well,
but I think it was some formula that began like

+" "&


where starting the formula with a + returned different (text) result than
when I used =. Althou now, this example is not returning anything weird, I'm
just going on fuzzy memory.

Again I don't remember. I wish I had written it down or brought it up for
pondering here. Now I'm using XL 2003 instead of 2000, so I don't know if it
would behave the same, I'll monkey with it again one day I'm sure.
 
Weird. I don't use the 10 keypad, I use the numbers above the keys. Proably
because the ease of getting to ( and ) and letters to type in function
names.

It is actually more work for me to enter a + since I must press shift before
=, yet I continue.

I don't see how entering a = by itself is a two hand operation, but it can
be a two hand operation to enter a = then immediately type numbers with your
right hand on the 10 keypad.
 
Dave,

It's probably the same thing. The + will coerce a text string into numeric,
so for instance if you enter '1 in A1 and '2 in A2, and do +SUM(A1:A2), you
get 0. But do =+A1+A2, and you get 3, as the + is coercing the text strings
to numeric.

Your +" "& could well be the same sort of thing.

And I don't see it would be any different in 2003 from 2000.

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)
 
It's probably the same thing. The + will coerce a text string into numeric,
so for instance if you enter '1 in A1 and '2 in A2, and do +SUM(A1:A2), you
get 0. But do =+A1+A2, and you get 3, as the + is coercing the text strings
to numeric.
Click to expand...

It's the second + in =+A1+A2 that triggers the conversion. The leading + is
superfluous.
Your +" "& could well be the same sort of thing.
Click to expand...
...

Unlikely. Leading =+ and = are interchangeable.
 
Bob-

A "unary +" doesn't coerce anything. + is a binary operator only in XL,
completely ignored if there's no lArg, which is why it's unnecessary
after the = sign. So only the second + does any coercing in your example.

Try:

A1: =+"1"
B1: =ISTEXT(A1) =====> TRUE


A2: =-"1"
B2: =ISTEXT(A2) =====> FALSE

Of course, if you use the "unary +" anywhere other than after the =
sign, XL gets rid of it for you...
 
Harald Staff said:
It's quite common to do this, since entering the = is a two-hand operation
and there isn't any on the numeric keypad.
Click to expand...

Hmm... there is on mine:

clr = / *

7 8 9 -

4 5 6 +

1 2 3 ^
Enter
< 0 > . V
 
What a mess!

Regards


JE McGimpsey said:
Bob-

A "unary +" doesn't coerce anything. + is a binary operator only in XL,
completely ignored if there's no lArg, which is why it's unnecessary
after the = sign. So only the second + does any coercing in your example.

Try:

A1: =+"1"
B1: =ISTEXT(A1) =====> TRUE


A2: =-"1"
B2: =ISTEXT(A2) =====> FALSE

Of course, if you use the "unary +" anywhere other than after the =
sign, XL gets rid of it for you...
Click to expand...
 
Ok, final straw, I'll buy your Mac then <bg>
This has to do with languages and regions then. This is a scandinavian Pc
keyboard:
= is entered by Shift 0
Numeric keypad (comma meaning default decimal separator):

Numlock / * -

7 8 9 ^
+
4 5 6 v

1 2 3 ^
Enter
< 0 > , V

What does your german keyboard layout look like, Frank ?

Best wishes Harald
 
Harald said:
Ok, final straw, I'll buy your Mac then <bg>
This has to do with languages and regions then. This is a
scandinavian Pc keyboard:
= is entered by Shift 0
Numeric keypad (comma meaning default decimal separator):

Numlock / * -

7 8 9 ^
+
4 5 6 v

1 2 3 ^
Enter
< 0 > , V

What does your german keyboard layout look like, Frank ?
Click to expand...

Hi Harald
also have to enter SHIFT + 0 to get the equation sign. Numeric keypad
also looks the same (though I normaly use my Laptop without this
keypad)

Frank
 
Doesn't anyone, besides me, have an equal sign just to the left of the
<backspace> key, whch also has a plus sign when shifted?
--


Regards,

RD
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please keep all correspondence within the Group, so all may benefit!
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Harald said:
Ok, final straw, I'll buy your Mac then <bg>
This has to do with languages and regions then. This is a
scandinavian Pc keyboard:
= is entered by Shift 0
Numeric keypad (comma meaning default decimal separator):

Numlock / * -

7 8 9 ^
+
4 5 6 v

1 2 3 ^
Enter
< 0 > , V

What does your german keyboard layout look like, Frank ?
Click to expand...

Hi Harald
also have to enter SHIFT + 0 to get the equation sign. Numeric keypad
also looks the same (though I normaly use my Laptop without this
keypad)

Frank
 
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