Excel formula contains =+

Question

I have a formula like this:

=+SUMSQ(B14:B45)-MMULT(TRANSPOSE(L13:L16);K58:K61)

What does do =+ operator in Excel? How to use it?

Answer 1

What does the =+ do in this formula? =+SUMSQ(B14:B45)

Absolutely nothing. It is a throwback to Lotus style formulas and does no harm but is completely unnecessary. The equals sign at the left side is necessary to initiate the use of a worksheet function but the plus sign is redundant. The formula could just as easily be written as =SUMSQ(B14:B45).

That said, do not confuse this with a double-minus (e.g. -- or double unary). This is typically intended to convert a TRUE/FALSE result to a numerical one by mathematically flipping the sign (positive/negative nature of result) with the first minus then flipping it back with the second. In this way, a TRUE becomes a 1 and a FALSE a 0. While its predominant use is conversion of boolean values to numerical, the double unary can also be used to convert text that looks like a number to an actual number; e.g. =--RIGHT("ABC123", 3) is equal to 123, not text that looks like 123.

See Overview of Formulas for more information on the construction of formulas.