
= SUMIFS (D5:D9 ,E5:E9, ">30" ) Cell format set to Textįinally, every once in a while, you might see a formula that is well-formed in every way, but somehow does not display a result. Sometimes, when people mention a formula online, they will use quotes, like this: 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:įinally, make sure the formula is not wrapped in quotes. All formulas in Excel must begin with an equal sign (=). If you leave this out, Excel will simply treat the formula as text:īroken formula example - no equal sign (=) Space before equal signĪ subtle variation of this problem can occur if there is one or more spaces before the equal sign. No equal signįirst, you may have forgotten the equal sign. There several situations that might cause this behavior. 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. Instead, Excel probably thinks the formula is text. If you are having trouble with a single formula, the problem isn't Show Formulas. Show Formulas toggles the display of every formula in a worksheet. You'll see you can quickly toggles all formulas on and off.

Try Control ` in a worksheet to see how it works. The reason Show Formulas can be accidentally enabled is because it has the keyboard shortcut (Control `) that a user might unknowingly type. Show Formulas enabled - just click to disable To check if Show Formulas is turned on, visit the Formula tab in the ribbon and check the Show Formulas button: 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. However, if you accidentally trigger this mode, it can be quite disorienting. Show Formulas is enabledĮxcel 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. I'll walk through each case with some examples. There are two main reasons you might see a formula instead of a result: With a little troubleshooting, you can get things working again. This can be very confusing, and you might think you've somehow broken your spreadsheet. The VLOOKUP formula is correct, why no result? Instead of a result, you see only a formula, as in the screen below: Another example is when one or more formulas suddenly stops working. One example is when you accidentally trigger the scroll lock feature.

Have you entered a formula, but Excel is not calculating a result?Įvery once in a while, you might find Excel behaving in a bizarre or unexpected way.
