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MS Office Forum / Excel / New Users / June 2007formula construction
Some people use only the = sign and some use =+ why would one want to put a + sign infront of a value? Does this force negative values to positive?  SignatureRegards Rob Prefixing with a minus would give the ABS of a negative number. Say B1 had a value of -5 and in A1 we put the formula =-B1 This would return an answer of 5 because minus/minus is plus Putting =+B1 in A1 would return -5 following the same math rule noted above. Mike > Some people use only the = sign and some use =+ why would one want to put a + > sign infront of a value? Does this force negative values to positive? I figured as much for the - and - issue. What if you are not sure of the number that will be in the reference cell, and then want the absolute value? If for example if you had varying data or a formula in B1. You would then not know whether to put a + or - in A1. I know this detracts form the original question slightly - just thought it interesting. SignatureRegards Rob > Prefixing with a minus would give the ABS of a negative number. > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Some people use only the = sign and some use =+ why would one want to put a + > > sign infront of a value? Does this force negative values to positive? There's no need to put a sign there at all so the question doesn't really arise. If you are unsure if a cell is positive/negative and you want the absolute value whichever it is then it's better to use =ABS(B1). Mike > I figured as much for the - and - issue. What if you are not sure of the > number that will be in the reference cell, and then want the absolute value? [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > > > Some people use only the = sign and some use =+ why would one want to put a + > > > sign infront of a value? Does this force negative values to positive? Excellent thanks SignatureRegards Rob > There's no need to put a sign there at all so the question doesn't really > arise. If you are unsure if a cell is positive/negative and you want the [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > > > > Some people use only the = sign and some use =+ why would one want to put a + > > > > sign infront of a value? Does this force negative values to positive? Fri, 8 Jun 2007 05:09:04 -0700 from Robert-the-Bruce <RoberttheBruce@discussions.microsoft.com>: > I figured as much for the - and - issue. What if you are not sure of the > number that will be in the reference cell, and then want the absolute value? > If for example if you had varying data or a formula in B1. You would then not > know whether to put a + or - in A1. =abs(B1) The Insert Function command is your friend when you don't know the name of the function you want. SignatureStan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ Fri, 8 Jun 2007 03:34:02 -0700 from Robert-the-Bruce <RoberttheBruce@discussions.microsoft.com>: > Some people use only the = sign and some use =+ why would one want to put a + > sign infront of a value? Does this force negative values to positive? No. The leading plus sign has no effect on a numeric argument. People don't necessarily always do things in the most efficient way. Sometimes a textbook will do something silly, and then the people who learned from the textbook follow that 'rule'. I'm not saying there's never any use for a leading + sign, right after the = sign, but I sure can't think of one. SignatureStan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA http://OakRoadSystems.com/ The plus is from the days of Lotus. When you enter the leading +, excel puts in the = sign itself. Originally intended to make it easy to transition users away from Lotus and some folks never broke the habit. > Fri, 8 Jun 2007 03:34:02 -0700 from Robert-the-Bruce > <RoberttheBruce@discussions.microsoft.com>: [quoted text clipped - 9 lines] > I'm not saying there's never any use for a leading + sign, right > after the = sign, but I sure can't think of one. |
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