Problems with formulas in Microsoft Excel. Excel formulas don't work Why doesn't Excel add sums in cells

You can customize the display of zero values in a cell, or use a set of formatting standards in a table that require you to hide zero values. You can show and hide null values in a variety of ways.

Hiding and showing all null values in a worksheet

Select File > Options > Additionally.

In a group

Show zeros in cells that contain zero values.

Hiding null values in selected cells

These steps hide null values in selected cells using a number format. Hidden values are displayed only in the formula bar and are not printed. If the value in one of these cells changes to non-zero, it will be displayed in the cell and the value format will be similar to the general number format.

Show hidden values.

Select cells with hidden zero values.

You can press the keys CTRL+1 or on the tab home click Format > Format Cells.

To apply the default number format, select Number > General and press the button OK.

Hiding null values returned by a formula

On the tab home Conditional Formatting and select Cell Selection Rules > Equals.

In the left field enter 0 .

In the right field select Custom Format.

In field Cell Format open tab Font.

Listed Color select white color and press the button OK.

Display zeros as spaces or dashes

To solve this problem, use the IF function.

If the cell contains null values, use a formula such as this to return an empty cell:

IF(A2-A3=0;"";A2-A3)

Here's how to read the formula. If the result of the calculation (A2-A3) is "0", nothing is displayed, including "0" (this is indicated by double quotes ""). Otherwise, the result of calculation A2-A3 is displayed. If you need to not leave cells blank, but display something other than "0", insert a hyphen "-" or another character between double quotes.

Select a PivotTable report.

On the tab Analysis in a group pivot table Options and select the item Options.

Go to the tab Markup and format

Changing the Display of Errors In field Format check the box For errors display

Change the display of empty cells Check box For empty cells, display

The need to display zero values (0) on sheets does not always arise. Whether formatting standards require you or your own preference to show or hide null values, there are several ways to implement all of these requirements.

Select File > Options > Additionally.

In a group Show options for next sheet select a sheet, and then do one of the following:

To display zero (0) values in cells, select the checkbox Show zeros in cells that contain zero values.

To display null values as empty cells, uncheck Show zeros in cells that contain zero values.

You can press the keys CTRL+1 or on the tab home click Format > Format Cells.

In field Type of enter 0;-0;;@

Notes:

Hidden values only appear in the formula bar or in a cell if you are editing its contents. These values are not printed.

To show the hidden values again, select the cells, and then press the keys CTRL+1 or on the tab home in a group cells hover over element Format and choose Cell Format. To apply the default number format, in the list Category select General. To display the date and time again, select the appropriate date and time format on the tab Number.

Select the cell containing zero (0) value.

On the tab home in a group Styles click the arrow next to the element Conditional Formatting, hover over the element Cell selection rules and select an option Equals.

In the left field enter 0 .

In the right field select Custom Format.

In the dialog box Cell Format open tab Font.

In field Color choose white.

To accomplish this task, use the function IF.

Example

IF function.

Hiding null values in a PivotTable report

On the tab Options in a group PivotTable Options click the arrow next to the command Options and select the item Options.

Go to the tab Markup and format, and then do the following:

In field Format check the box For errors display. Enter in the field the value that you want to display instead of errors. To display errors as empty cells, remove all text from the field.

Check box For empty cells, display. Enter in the field the value that you want to display in empty cells. To keep them empty, remove all text from the field. To display null values, clear this check box.

Show or hide all zero values in a worksheet

Hiding null values in selected cells using number format

These actions allow you to hide null values in selected cells. If the value in one of the cells becomes non-zero, its format will be similar to the general number format.

Select the cells that contain null values (0) that you want to hide.

You can press the keys CTRL+1 or on the tab home in a group cells click Format > Format Cells.

In field Type of enter 0;-0;;@

Notes:

Hiding null values returned by a formula using conditional formatting

Select the cell containing zero (0) value.

On the tab home in a group Styles click the arrow next to the button Conditional Formatting and select Cell Selection Rules > Equals.

In the left field enter 0 .

In the right field select Custom Format.

In the dialog box Cell Format open tab Font.

In field Color choose white.

Using a formula to display zeros as spaces or dashes

To accomplish this task, use the IF function.

Example

To make this example easier to understand, copy it onto a blank sheet.

Copying an example

Highlight the example given in this article.

Important: Do not highlight row or column headings.

Highlight an example in help

Press CTRL+C.

In Excel, create a blank workbook or sheet.

Select cell A1 on the worksheet and press CTRL+V.

Important: For the example to work correctly, it must be inserted into cell A1.

To switch between viewing results and viewing formulas that return those results, press CTRL+` (accent sign) or on the tab Formulas in the Formula Dependencies group, click Show formulas.

By copying the example to a blank sheet, you can customize it the way you want.

For more information about using this function, see the IF function article.

Hiding null values in a PivotTable report

Click the PivotTable report.

On the tab Options in a group PivotTable Options click the arrow next to the command Options and select the item Options.

Go to the tab Markup and format, and then do the following:

Changing the way errors are displayed. In field Format check the box For errors display. Enter in the field the value that you want to display instead of errors. To display errors as empty cells, remove all text from the field.

Change how empty cells are displayed. Check box For empty cells, display. Enter in the field the value that you want to display in empty cells. To keep them empty, remove all text from the field. To display null values, clear this check box.

Lifehacker readers are already familiar with Denis Batyanov who shared with us. Today Denis will talk about how to avoid the most common Excel problems that we often create ourselves.

Immediately make a reservation that the material of the article is intended for novice users of Excel. Experienced users have already incendiary danced on this rake more than once, so my task is to protect young and inexperienced "dancers" from this.

You don't give headers to table columns

Many Excel tools, such as sorting, filtering, smart tables, pivot tables, assume that your data contains column headings. Otherwise, you will either not be able to use them at all, or they will not work quite correctly. Always make sure your tables contain column headings.

Empty columns and rows inside your tables

This confuses Excel. When it encounters an empty row or column inside your table, it starts to think that you have 2 tables, not just one. You will have to constantly correct it. Also, do not hide the rows/columns you do not need inside the table, it is better to delete them.

Multiple tables on one sheet

If these are not tiny tables containing reference books of values, then this is not worth doing.

It will be inconvenient for you to fully work with more than one table per sheet. For example, if one table is on the left and the other is on the right, then filtering one table will affect the other. If the tables are located one below the other, then it is impossible to use the fixing of areas, and also one of the tables will have to be constantly searched and performed unnecessary manipulations in order to place the table cursor on it. Do you need it?

Data of the same type is artificially arranged in different columns

Very often, users who know Excel superficially enough prefer this table format:

It would seem that we have a harmless format for the accumulation of information on the sales of agents and their fines. Such a layout of the table is well perceived by a person visually, since it is compact. However, believe me, it's a real nightmare to try to extract data from such tables and get subtotals (aggregate information).

The fact is that this format contains 2 dimensions: in order to, you must decide on the line, sorting through the branch, group and agent. When you find the right row, then you will have to look for the desired column, since there are a lot of them. And this "two-dimensionality" greatly complicates the work with such a table for standard Excel tools - formulas and pivot tables.

If you build a pivot table, you will find that it is not possible to easily get data by year or quarter, since the indicators are spread across different fields. You don't have one sales volume field that can be manipulated conveniently, but 12 separate fields. You will have to manually create separate calculated fields for quarters and years, although if it were all in one column, the pivot table would do it for you.

If you want to use the standard summation formulas like SUMIF, SUMIFS, SUMPRODUCT, you will also find that they will not work effectively with this table layout.

Separation of information on different sheets of the book "for convenience"

Another common mistake is, having some standard table format and needing analytics based on this data, to post it on separate sheets of an Excel workbook. For example, it is common to create separate sheets for each month or year. As a result, the amount of data analysis work is actually multiplied by the number of sheets created. You don't have to do that. Accumulate information on ONE sheet.

Information in the comments

Often, users add important information they might need to a cell comment. Keep in mind that what is in the comments, you can only see (if you find it). It's hard to get it into a cell. I recommend it is better to allocate a separate column for comments.

Formatting mess

Definitely won't add anything good to your table. This looks repulsive to the people who use your spreadsheets. At best, they will not attach importance to this, at worst, they will think that you are not organized and sloppy in business. Strive for the following:

Merging cells

Use cell merging only when you can't do without it. Merged cells make it very difficult to manipulate the ranges they fall within. There are problems when moving cells, when inserting cells, etc.

Combining text and numbers in one cell

A painful impression is made by a cell containing a number, supplemented at the back by the text constant "RUB." or "USD" entered manually. Especially if this is not a printed form, but a regular table. Arithmetic operations with such cells are naturally impossible.

Numbers as text in a cell

Avoid storing numeric data in a cell in text format. Over time, some of the cells in such a column will have a text format, and some will have a regular one. Because of this, there will be problems with the formulas.

If your table will be presented through an LCD projector

Choose the most contrasting combinations of color and background. The dark background and light letters look good on the projector. The worst impression is made by red on black and vice versa. This combination looks extremely low-contrast on the projector - avoid it.

Page mode sheet in Excel

This is the same mode in which Excel shows how the sheet will be paginated when printed. Page borders are highlighted in blue. I do not recommend constantly working in this mode, which many do, since the printer driver is involved in the process of displaying data on the screen, and this, depending on many reasons (for example, the printer is networked and currently unavailable), is fraught with freezes in the visualization process and recalculation of formulas. Work normally.

More useful information about Excel can be found at

Today I encountered a situation where excel formulas not working when dragging, i.e. there were two columns and it was necessary to calculate the difference of the first two columns in the third column. As a result, a formula is made and stretched down to the end, but the result from the first cell is copied to the remaining cells.

1 option

It is likely that you have disabled automatic recalculation of the sheet, to do this, simply press the key F9

2 Option for all versions of Office

Check that the cell format is not text (because of this, calculations and, accordingly, formulas may not work)

PS to fix this, select the cells and select format General (see picture Cell Format)

3 Option for Office 2010

Check the formula calculation options in the settings.

To do this, click on the FILE-> OPTIONS-> FORMULA menu and in the "Calculation Options" menu, see where you have a tick (see the picture it should be like this)

4 Option for Office 2007/2010

For Office 2007 the path is Formula->Calculation Options-> and tick the box Automatic, except for data tables.(see picture below)

One of the most requested features of Excel is working with formulas. Thanks to this function, the program independently performs various kinds of calculations in tables. But sometimes it happens that the user enters a formula into a cell, but it does not fulfill its intended purpose - calculating the result. Let's see what this can be connected with and how to solve this problem.

The causes of problems with calculating formulas in Excel can be completely different. They can be caused both by the settings of a particular book or even a separate range of cells, or by various errors in the syntax.

Method 1: Changing the Format of Cells

One of the most common reasons why Excel does not count formulas at all or does not count formulas correctly is an incorrectly set cell format. If the range has a text format, then the expressions in it are not calculated at all, that is, they are displayed as plain text. In other cases, if the format does not match the essence of the calculated data, the result displayed in the cell may not be displayed correctly. Let's find out how to solve this problem.

Now the formula will be calculated in the standard order with the output of the result in the specified cell.

Method 2: Disable "Show Formulas" Mode

But perhaps the reason that instead of the calculation results you have expressions is that the program has the mode "Show Formulas".

Method 3: Fixing a Syntax Error

A formula can also be displayed as text if there are errors in its syntax, such as missing or changing a letter. If you entered it manually, and not through Function Wizard, then this is very likely. A very common error associated with displaying an expression as text is the presence of a space before the sign «=» .

In such cases, you need to carefully review the syntax of those formulas that are displayed incorrectly and make appropriate adjustments to them.

Method 4: Enable formula recalculation

There is also such a situation that the formula seems to display the value, but when the cells associated with it change, it does not change itself, that is, the result is not recalculated. This means that your calculation options in this workbook are not configured correctly.

Now all expressions in this workbook will be automatically recalculated when any associated value changes.

Method 5: an error in the formula

If the program still performs the calculation, but as a result shows an error, then the situation is likely that the user simply made a mistake when entering the expression. Incorrect formulas are those in the calculation of which the following values appear in the cell:

#NUMBER!;
#VALUE!;
#EMPTY!;
#DIV/0!;
#N/A.

In this case, you need to check whether the data is written correctly in the cells referenced by the expression, whether they contain errors in the syntax, or whether the formula itself contains any incorrect action (for example, division by 0).

If the function is complex, with a large number of connected cells, then it is easier to trace the calculations using a special tool.

As you can see, the reasons that Excel does not calculate or does not correctly calculate formulas can be completely different. If, instead of calculating, the user displays the function itself, then in this case, most likely, either the cell is formatted for text, or the expression viewing mode is enabled. Also, a syntax error is possible (for example, the presence of a space before the sign «=» ). If after changing the data in the related cells the result is not updated, then you need to look at how auto-update is configured in the book settings. Also, quite often, instead of the correct result, an error is displayed in the cell. Here you need to see all the values \u200b\u200bto which the function refers. If an error is found, it should be corrected.

Have you encountered the problem that Excel does not calculate the formula? If yes, then you should probably divide this problem into two main reasons:

The first option - you entered a formula, it is displayed, but not considered.

The second option - you entered a formula, it is considered, but an error is displayed.

Excel reads the formula but throws an error

How to be here. First, I suggest reading about the errors -. In the same article, a solution to many problems is proposed. To deal with the case when there is an error in the calculations, there is a special tool - Calculate the formula (Formulas - Formula Dependencies Section - Calculate Formula)

If you select this command, a special window will open, with which you can execute any formula step by step. For example

Click Calculate and step by step you will have the results of the calculation. This is very handy when you have 10 or more conditions or nested formulas!

The formula doesn't count. Other cases:

I also met with cases when the formula is not calculated, because the formula view mode was accidentally turned on (Task ribbon - Formulas - Formula Dependencies section - Show formulas)

Quite often gives an error

As the hint suggests, the following errors can be made. But most often this error occurs if you put a bracket in the wrong place - check if all the brackets are in the right place - they are highlighted for this.

VALUE() function

A formula with such a function is also used to convert text to a number. More

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