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Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Computing/2017 July 23

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July 23

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Excel formulae

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In Excel, there is a little formula box for writing formulas. It is possible to use the said box to write conditional statements within conditional statements and create lengthy formulae, as I've done before. Is this pseudo code or writing algorithms? How is this different from computer programming? 50.4.236.254 (talk) 03:37, 23 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Each field beginning with an "=" contains/expects a formula. Beside mathematical basic operations, functions are also predefined and additional functions can be creates in the VBA (visual basic for applications) editor. Im a formula, multible functions can be used. A function returns the result. By clicking the button "=", a wizard for beginners pops up. At the moment the user understands the syntax of the excel formula, the user is ready to type the formula from scratch by beginning with the "=" in any field. In older versions, the helpfile is not installed by default. Today, there is online help avail, making everyone understand each in Excel by default included function. Using VBA requires the security issue to allow macros due macros are written in VBA. Whenever a formula exceeds a fields capacity, spit it up to other fields or use VBA for a customized written function. In the VBA editor SUBs and FUNCTIONs can be created. A function defined with its input parameters in the headline of the VBA editor also requires to set the the output variable to return the result to the Excel table. Just google for excel function vba [1] to the an example. Newer versions of MS-Office require the user to turn on the execution of macro more complicated than older versions which have been abused by malware, written in macros. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 06:13, 23 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
It's closer to the ?: Ternary operator in C-type languages. The format is =IF(condition, value-if-true, value-if-false). Of course, the values can be expressions instead. If you are building complex equations, it can be handy to use empty cells to represent part of the formulæ. LongHairedFop (talk) 16:46, 23 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]
…or even by formulas. --Hans Haase (有问题吗) 20:40, 25 July 2017 (UTC)[reply]