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Curly Bracket, Parentheses And Square Brackets In Formula

What is the terminology and concept behind this? It is probably easy to learn about if we knew the name of this oddity.

Our spreadsheet shows formulas that show like this:

{sum(if(...))}(1,1)[0][0]

The ... indicates omitted detail. We want to modify the formula to get data from a different column, but any attempt to edit the formula causes the curly brackets and stuff at the end to vanish. Then the cell shows "#VALUE!" unless we back out of the change.

Related to this is that when we save this spreadsheet in Gnumeric, and try to read it in Excel (not sure which version) the curly brackets and funny stuff don't appear unless we are careful to save it as "Excel 5.0/95", we wear the right color socks, and Mercury is trine with Jupiter... Is there a more reliable, version-independent way to accomplish whatever magic is going on?

BTW, google isn't any good at searching for "(1,1)[0][0]"!


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I have and excel sheet that was a contact list apparently exported wrong and has the names and addresses all together in each cell in about 350 rows in column A, they are all in this format

john doe email address here

for some reason the email address in brackets won't show up here but each email address is in brackets

I need to get the name in one column and the email address without the brackets into another, any ideas?


I have an extensive spreadsheet with several columns and all showing borders
where each cell/column begins and ends. However there are a few cells where
the break with the next cell does not show the line.

I have highlighed the cell in question, gone to format/cell/borders and
everything looks fine. Black color + format border shows square with all
sides of square showing.

Any thoughts on how to fix these few random cells.

Thanks



I did a bit of browsing on this problem. Found others suffering the same but haven't found any conclusive answer yet.

Every so often when I attempt to save a file, (including save as), Excel won'r let me. By won't let me I mean:

using Save doesn't appear to do anything using Save As doesn't either do anything, the dialog is not displayed and if I am doing via the File menu then the File menu is exited and the previous ribbon tab is displayed (i.ethe one I was on before clicking 'File') if I close the workbook I am prompted to save, close without saving or cancel. Clicking save just invokes the same msgbox again. I can't work out when it goes into this mode. Some days I can work without this problem, other days I encounter this 2 or 3 times.

The only thing I could suspect was I think this started around about the time I installed xlDennis' code library. I have uninstalled the addin and so far so good, but I cannot categorically say that this was the cause.

Anyone have any idea?

Cheers
Jon

Edit: I have read this: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/271513
Doesn't seem to cover the issue I describe


I need help desparately. Last night I spent several hours working on an
Excel 2002 spreadsheet and it has disappeared.

I saved it routinely as I was making many changes updates etc. I opened
original file --stuff.xls --- made changes and saved it as again as
stuff.xls. I have done this several times before.

Today, when I go to open stuff.xls, it is nowhere to be found!!!!! I have
done a search, for any file modified since Thurs and nothing has appeared. I
have checked the recycle bin, this did not go into auto recover nothing of
the like. I am just traumatized, because I have NEVER had anything like this
happen before.

I even thought perhaps I didn't save it as often as I thought, (I know that
I did) but I remembered that I saved it at least once and I can't even find
an Excel file that has been modified since Thurs!!!

Does anyone have any idea what could have happened to this file?? BTW, I
have prayed, rebooted, run spybot, called witch doctor, all with no success.

I have never had a file to just disappear with no trace. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance---



Hello everyone!!!!

Here is my situation. I have been trying to learn macros but have not made one yet. Need your help. Here at work, I have some incompentant computer workers who claim they KNOW MS sooo well and have certificates etc... *COUGH COUGH* ya ok... LMAO

We have a "shared" work book we all work in. It's nothing fancy, just use it as a PO Book but since it is shared some people continue to not save before they add in more work so that they see a "refreshed" copy of the workbook before they start writing in cells that already contain information.

How to I create a macro button at the top of the page that is literally a SAVE button.. instead of them saving by going to File - Save or cntrl+s ??? I just thought that MAYBE having a big button in their face will remind them.

Secondly as back up I was wondering if you can create a macro to do a refresh of everyones screens automatically - say every 2 or 5 mins??? I don't mean a save... but a refresh so the screen actually updates in front of you. (although I will keep this little piece of magic out of their knowledge so they don't rely on it, just though it would be a secondary back up to helping eliminate these mishaps cause we are loosing alot of information by people saving overtop of other peoples work and not caring.)

Thanks so much!!!!! Muchly appriciated.


Here's my formula... =SUM(S7)-T5

If that number is less than -100, I want it to show as blank.

Any help?

Right now, I'm trying to accomplish this by making a conditional format...meaning when my cell equals less than -100 I make the cell color and font the same (so it looks blank, but its not). When I print it, it still shows the negative value.


Thanks.


Today I ran into an odd problem. I typed in values for column A rows 1 through 10 then values for column B rows 1 through 10. then in column C, I made the formula C1=A1/B1. The math was correct it showed 542 in the C1 cell. So I dragged that formula down and it showed 542 in all column C cells which is not correct. And when I went to check to see if the formula was correctly dragged it was. For instance, the formula in C2 is =A2/B2 however the value of that cell showed 542 which was not the correct math/value.

But it gets even more weird. When I click on the Column C cells and then it shows the formula up top in the formula bar and if I put my cursor anywhere in the formula bar and hit Return the formula does not change however the correct value then appears in the Column C cell. It is like the act of putting the cursor in the formula activates it to work properly but until it is activated that C cell shows the value of the cell which it was dragged down from.

This is quite bizarre. Has anyone ever seen this before? I have no idea what is going on. I ran a scan for viruses and none were found. I tried it on several new/different spreadsheets but it keeps happening.

Thanks for any tips on this.


I cannot edit an excel spreadsheet that I had made. When I open up the file I can view everything but change nothing. The file is not saved as read-only. What can I do?


Sorry for the question. Normally I find answers to my excel questions by going through the help tab or by searching on Google. However, I don't even know what question to ask on this one!?!

Basically I have created a spreadsheet with several columns, but I have one column that lists the shirt size (YS, YM, YL, AS, AM, AL, XL, 2X, 3X) of each person. Is there a formula that I can create that will tabulate the number of sizes (i.e. AS=2, AM=7, etc.)?

In previous years I made a column for each size, and simply placed a "1" in the correct column, and had excel just add the 1's from each column. However, that takes more time and space. I was hoping to streamline it this time around.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks, doug


I know this question has been asked a bajillion times, so I apologize for the redundancy.

I am working with an Excel spreadsheet and saving it as a .csv file in order to upload to an application that parses out the .csv data as transactions. The system requires .csv files, so this is how I need to save my doc (with this extension). I have been successful at preventing Excel from coverting that long number into scientific format. I have saved as a TXT file, pasted the longer number and it displays correctly. That is all good. But I have to save as a .csv. So if I do that, close the Excel window, and then open again (as the .csv file), the numbers are back to being displayed in scientific format. I have tried creating an Excel doc from scratch and entering text in Text format, to see if this created a cleaner file. But again, the second I save as .csv, close the window and then open that file up again, that dang scientific format is back.

Does anyone have any idea of how to work around this? Once I have successfully gotten the numbers to display as the long-chain number, how can I get them to "stick" so that they don't revert back to scientific format when I reopen the file?

Thanks so much for your help!


I have noticed that a handful of people at work enter a formula as =+A1+A2 instead of the way I would enter it =A1+A2

What is the origin of the extra plus sign at the beginning? To me it seems to be unproductive and is simply not needed. I have been using Excel for over 12 years and have never needed to enter any formulas like that. Does this originate back to a much older version of Excel where it was once needed?

Just curious.
Thanks.


I have a co-worker's file that he is having trouble with. He is using Excel 2000 SP3. When copying a cell with a formula in it of "=D6+C6" and pasting it into the next cell down, it will display the same value in the cell as the calculated value from above, but has the correct formula displayed in the formula bar of "=D7+C7".

Example:
A1: 50
A2: 10
B1: 60
B2: 20

A3: Formula: =A1+A2 Displays: 60
Right click A3, Copy, right click B3, paste
A3 displays 60

When I click save, it will change the display value to 80.

I am trying this on his workstation and mine. Mine has Office 2010, so I think there might be an issue with the file itself.

Also, not just copy and paste. I can also just click the top cell after filling in the formula and then drag the bottom right of the cell downward and it will do the same of filling in the correct formula, but have the incorrect value.

I know that I could get him to just click save each time before really looking at the results, but that is just a band aid to the problem.

Any ideas how to fix this?


I am trying to do a very simple copy and paste of a simple formula in Excel 2007 and nothing seems to be working. Excel will not let me copy and paste a formula and will only paste the value into to workbook. For instance, if I make a very simple spreadsheet such as:
A1 type in 10, A2 type in =A1 (calculated A2 to be 10)
B1 type in 5

And then click the copy on B1, and then click paste special on cell B2, the only options it gives me are text and unicode text and so no matter how I paste, cell b2 will always be populated with a value of 5. I cannot imagine a simpler copy and paste and no matter what I do I can't make this work.
All cells are formatted as general. It seems that all copy and pasting of formulas in my excel has been disabled. If I open any spreadsheet on my computer, I can't copy and paste formulas, but do the exact same thing on the exact same spreadsheet on any other computer and it works no problem.

Any help?


Hello,

I am new to using Excel and I am not very computer literate. I am looking for some help with a spreadsheet I am making. Here is the problem:

I have a column of 14 numbers in cells A1 to A14. If all of these values are less than 2%, I would like a "Pass" to display in cell B1. If any of these values are greater than 2% I would like a "Fail" to display in cell B1.

I have got a formula that works for a single cell but I can't figure out how to get it to apply to more than one cell. For example, I have entered =IF(A1<2,"Pass","Fail") in cell B1. Now if the value I enter in A1 is less than 2, it shows a "Pass", and if the value in A1 is greater than 2 it shows a "Fail" in cell B1. How can I get this to apply to all of the cells from A1 to A14?

If somebody could help me out that would be great.

Thanks,
Randy


This is probably an easy question for most of you, but it's killing me. I tried searching before I posted this, but the suggestions given didn't seem to work for me.

I need to look up data from a cell on one Excel sheet, compare it to a list on a 2nd sheet and when they equal, take a value from a different column on the 2nd sheet and drop it back on the 1st sheet. Since that's a horrible explanation, let me try explaining it this way:

Sheet 1
Column A has a long list of code type 1s
Column E has a long list of code type 2s

Sheet 2
Cell C2 has code 1
Cell E2 needs code 2

I know it should take an index/match function, but nothing I try is working. What I'm trying is the following formula in Cell E2 of sheet 2:

=INDEX('Sheet 1'!A:A,MATCH(C2,'Sheet 1"!E:E,0),5)

But all I get is no result. What's driving me bonkers is that if I copy everything over to a single sheet, that formula works fine.


Hi there,

I'm very new to Excel, and I'm having trouble figuring a few things out. Hopefully this will be very easy for you guys!

In Sheet 1, I have a column of cells that I would like to also appear in Sheet 2. If I add a new row to the column in Sheet 1, I would also like it to be updated automatically in Sheet 2. Currently, I can get it to show the contents of individual cells from Sheet 1 in Sheet 2 by using this formula in the formula bar for each cell in Sheet 2:

=Sheet1!A3 (or whichever cell it is)

That's fine, but I'd like to just have a formula that will reproduce the entire column (ie. without a fixed range, as new rows are going to be added to the column).

If anyone could point me in the right direction, I'd be very very grateful. Thanks.


I have a spreadsheet with simple (addition/subtraction) formulas. The file is quite large and the formulas are too. All of a sudden, the formulas stopped working except when I double click in the cell containing the actual formula. For example, if I enter "2" in each cell, A2 and B2, cell B3 should reflect "4" because there is a formula in cell B3 which totals cells A2 and B2. Only by double clicking on cell B3 will the program actually calculate. I'm totally perplexed and so is my IT contact. Anyone?


I have AplphaNumeric part numbers that sometimes contain hyphens or decimals. In order to make them more searchable (since people don't always use the hyphens or decimals properly when they search) I would like to create all the possible variants of the part number, but with one formula.

So AHW18.787 becomes AHW18 787 and AHW18787 with

=SUBSTITUTE(A1,"."," ") and
=SUBSTITUTE(A1,".","") respectively, and

AHRTW-A18-7007 becomes AHRTW A18 7007 and AHRTWA187007 with

=SUBSTITUTE(A1,"-"," ") and
=SUBSTITUTE(A1,"-","").

What I need to be able to do is merge these formulas into one, so that no matter what format the part number is in A1, I get a version of it with spaces in B1, and a version of it with no spaces in C1. I just have not been able to nest it all together - is it even possible with this command?

Thx


I have an excel worksheet that adds two other worksheets in a data
triangle. I copied it to create a new data set and used find &
replace to change the worksheet references to the new ones.

The cells still contain the result of the old formula referring to the
previous worksheets. The only way I can get the formula to return the
correct result is to edit (F2) each cell and press enter. Calc now
(F9) does nothing.

I've seen this before, but this time, I need to calculate many
thousands of cells and don't have time for this workaround.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

Don S



Is it possible to change the color of text using a formula, such as an IF
statement? What I have in mind is something like this (stated simply): If
cells B9 or N9 or Z9 or AL9 are blank, do nothing, else color text in cell S4
red.