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what is the meaning of curly brackets in the functions { }

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    what is the meaning of curly brackets in the functions { }

    some function has a curly brackets { } by pressing CTRL + SHIFT + ENTER

    What is this curly brackets what thy do in the function ..

    can i use it in the SUM() FUNCTION? IF I USE IS IN SUM FUNCTION WHAT IT WILL DO ?


    CAN I HAVE AN EXAMPLE FOR THIS ?

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    Forum Contributor dogberry's Avatar
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    Re: what is the meaning of curly brackets in the functions { }

    =SUM((A2:A10="Fax")*(B2:B10="Brown")*(C2:C10))

    Hi

    Its an array formula above is an example ctrl shift enter puts in the curlys a google search should give you lots more just search on array formula syntax for sum function or similar


    Chris
    Click my star if I helped Thanks

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    Forum Contributor dogberry's Avatar
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    Re: what is the meaning of curly brackets in the functions { }

    http://www.myonlinetraininghub.com/excel-array-formula

    Hi

    Had a look on the internet for you if you click the above link it explains arrays in detail in easy to understand english.


    Chris

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    Re: what is the meaning of curly brackets in the functions { }

    The curly brackets (in this case) tell us that you've told Excel to treat the function as an arrayed function. To my understanding, when this is done, Excel knows to designate space in memory for storage of intermediate values when it would not normally do so. For example
    you have numbers in A1:B6 and you want to sum the difference in each row (i.e (B1-A1)+(B2-A2)+...
    =SUM(B1-A1,B2-A2,B3-A3,B4-A4,B5-A5,B6-A6) will work
    or
    using CONTRL SHFT ENTER
    =SUM(B1:B6-A1:A6) tells excel to store these intermediate values in memory for later use (SUM). IF you don't use CNTRL SHFT ENTER, you'll get an error.
    It takes some practice and some imagination to figure out which functions can be made to work as arrays and which can't. (more like under what circumstances can a function be made an array and when it can't)
    Here's another example
    You want to do a INDEX/MATCH on two columns concatenated instead of 1
    i.e. if Col A has male names and B has female and you want the value in C that corresponds to James in A and Mary in B
    =INDEX(C1:C10,MATCH("JamesMary", A1:A10&B1:B10,0)) will only work if you tell excel to treat it as an array (store all those intermediate values (A1&B1, A2&B2, etc)
    Hope that helps.
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    Re: what is the meaning of curly brackets in the functions { }

    Array formulas well explained..

    www.cpearson.com/excel/arrayformulas.aspx
    Life's a spreadsheet, Excel!
    Say thanks, Click *

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