QUESTION
Erika saw an Excel formula that started with: =+
What’s the deal?
ANSWER
Nothing.
People who grew up with Lotus notes got into the habit of starting a formula with ‘+’ and they carried it over to Excel.
What excel does with that is simply add ‘=’ to the front and you end up with formulae that can look like:
=+INTERCEPT(C6:C10,B6:B10)
This is drastically different from seeing a double-minus (technically called ‘double unary’) in a formula. The double-unary returns 1 or 0 instead of ‘TRUE’ or ‘FALSE.’
An Excel formula that starts with =+ is nothing. It’s an old habit that Lotus Notes users have for starting a formula.
Erika, there’s nothing to worry about. Whether a formula starts with = or =+ the answer is going to be the same. Just keep on movin’ and keep your data clean!
photo credit: Helga Weber via photopin cc
