Which displays the result of a formula

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Which displays the result of a formula

Have you entered a formula, but Excel is not calculating a result? Every once in a while, you might find Excel behaving in a bizarre or unexpected way. One example is when you accidentally trigger the scroll lock feature. Another example is when one or more formulas suddenly stops working. Instead of a result, you see only a formula, as in the

screen below: The VLOOKUP formula is correct, why no result? This can be very confusing, and you might think you've somehow broken your spreadsheet. However, it's likely a simple problem. With a little troubleshooting, you can get things working again. There are two main reasons you might see a formula instead of a result: You accidentally

enabled Show Formulas Excel thinks your formula is text I'll walk through each case with some examples. Show Formulas is enabled Excel has a feature called Show Formulas that toggles the display of formula results and actual formulas. Show Formulas is mean to give you a quick way to see all formulas in a worksheet. However, if you accidentally

trigger this mode, it can be quite disorienting. With Show Formulas enabled, columns are widened, and every formula in a worksheet is displayed with no results anywhere in sight, as shown in the screens below. Show Formulas disabled (normal mode) Show Formulas enabled To check if Show Formulas is turned on, visit the Formula tab in the

ribbon and check the Show Formulas button: Show Formulas enabled - just click to disable The reason Show Formulas can be accidentally enabled is because it has the keyboard shortcut (Control `) that a user might unknowingly type. Try Control ` in a worksheet to see how it works. You'll see you can quickly toggles all formulas on and off. Watch a

video with over 20 formula tips Show Formulas toggles the display of every formula in a worksheet. If you are having trouble with a single formula, the problem isn't Show Formulas. Instead, Excel probably thinks the formula is text. Read on for more information. Excel thinks your formula is text If Excel thinks a formula is just text, and not an actual

formula, it will simply display the text without trying to evaluate it as a formula. There several situations that might cause this behavior. No equal sign First, you may have forgotten the equal sign. All formulas in Excel must begin with an equal sign (=). If you leave this out, Excel will simply treat the formula as text: Broken formula example - no equal

sign (=) Space before equal sign A subtle variation of this problem can occur if there is one or more spaces before the equal sign. A single space can be hard to spot, but it breaks the rule that all formulas must start with an equal sign, so it will break the formula as shown below: Formula wrapped in quotes Finally, make sure the formula is not

wrapped in quotes. Sometimes, when people mention a formula online, they will use quotes, like this: In Excel, quotes are used to signify text, so the formula will not be evaluated, as seen below: Note: you are free to use quotes inside formulas. In this case, the formula above requires quotes around criteria. In all of the examples above, just edit the

formula so it begins with an equal sign and all should be well: For reference, here is the working formula: =SUMIFS(D5:D9,E5:E9,">30") Cell format set to Text Finally, every once in a while, you might see a formula that is well-formed in every way, but somehow does not display a result. If you run into a formula like this, check to see if the cell

format is set to Text. If so, set the format to General, or another suitable number format. You may need to enter cell edit mode (click into the formula bar, or use F2, then enter) to get Excel to recognize the format change. Excel should then evaluate as a formula. Tip - Save formula in progress as text Although a broken formula is never fun, you can

sometimes use the "formula as text problem" to your advantage, as a way to save work in progress on a tricky formula. Normally, if you try to enter a formula in an unfinished state, Excel will throw an error, stopping you from entering the formula. However, if you add a single apostrophe before the equal sign Excel will treat the formula as text and

let you enter without complaint. The single quote reminds you that the formula has been intentionally converted to text: Later, you can then come back later to work on the formula again, starting where you left off. See #17 in this list for more info. In this short tutorial, you will learn an easy way to display formulas in Excel 2016, 2013, 2010 and

older versions. Also, you will learn how to print formulas and why sometimes Excel shows a formula, not result, in a cell. If you are working on a spreadsheet with a lot of formulas in it, it may become challenging to comprehend how all those formulas relate to each other. Showing formulas in Excel instead of their results can help you track the data

used in each calculation and quickly check your formulas for errors. Microsoft Excel provides a really simple and quick way to show formulas in cells, and in a moment, you will make sure of this. Usually, when you enter a formula in a cell and press the Enter key, Excel immediately displays the calculated result. To show all formulas in the cells

containing them, use one of the following methods. 1. Show Formulas option on the Excel ribbon In your Excel worksheet, go to the Formulas tab > Formula Auditing group and click the Show Formulas button. Microsoft Excel displays formulas in cells instead of their results right away. To get the calculated values back, click the Show Formulas

button again to toggle it off. 2. 'Show formulas in cells instead of their results' option In Excel 2010, Excel 2013 and Excel 2016, go to File > Options. In Excel 2007, click Office Button > Excel Options. Select Advanced on the left pane, scroll down to the Display options for this worksheet section and select the option Show formulas in cells instead of

their calculated results. At first sight, this seems to be a longer way, but you may find it useful when you want to display formulas in a number of Excel sheets, within the currently open workbooks. In this case, you just select the sheet name from the dropdown list and check the Show formulas in cells¡­ option for each sheet. 3. Excel shortcut to show

formulas The fastest way to see every formula in your Excel spreadsheet is pressing the following shortcut: Ctrl + ` The grave accent key (`) is the furthest key to the left on the row with the number keys (next to the number 1 key). The Show Formulas shortcut toggles between displaying cell values and cell formulas. To get the formula results back,

simply hit the shortcut again. Note. Whichever of the above methods you use, Microsoft Excel will show all formulas of the current worksheet. To display formulas in other sheets and workbooks, you will need to repeat the process for each sheet individually. If you want to view the data used in a formula's calculations, use any of the above methods to

show formulas in cells, then select the cell containing the formula in question, and you will see a result similar to this: How to print formulas in Excel If you want to print formulas in your Excel spreadsheet instead of printing the calculated results of those formulas, just use any of the 3 methods to show formulas in cells, and then print the worksheet

as you normally print your Excel files (File > Print). That's it! Why is Excel showing formula, not result? Did it ever happen to you that you type a formula in a cell, press the Enter key¡­ and Excel still shows the formula instead of the result? Don't worry, your Excel is all right, and we will have that mishap fixed in a moment. In general, Microsoft Excel

can display formulas instead of calculated values for the following reasons: You may have inadvertently activated the Show Formulas mode by clicking the corresponding button on the ribbon, or pressing the CTRL+` shortcut. To get the calculated results back, just toggle off the Show Formulas button or press CTRL+` again. You may have

accidentally typed a space or single quote (') before the equal sign in the formula: When a space or single quote precedes the equal sign, Excel treats the cell contents as text and does not evaluate any formula within that cell. To fix this, just remove the leading space or single quote. Before entering a formula in a cell, you may have set the cell's

formatting to Text. In this case, Excel also perceives the formula as a usual text string and does not calculate it. To fix this error, select the cell, go to the Home tab > Number group, and set the cell's formatting to General, and while in the cell, press F2 and ENTER. This is how you show formulas in Excel. A piece of cake, isn't it? On the other hand, if

you plan to share your worksheet with other users, you may want to protect your formulas from overwriting or editing, and even hide them from viewing. And it is exactly what we are going to discuss in the next article. Please stay tuned! You may also be interested in

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