Thread: Comments for functions

Sometimes in worksheets the formulas can get out of hand, and when you open a
file a while after you last touched it, you can no longer understand some
formulas you have in your worksheets.

Can you please include syntax for cell function parser, so that it is
possible to add any comment text after the last bracket and it'd just ignore
it. You can even have an apostrophe like in VB to avoid inveting a wheel.

Say, such a formula including comment could be valid in a cell:
=(EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)-EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) 'counts number of days in a
current month.

Hi

if you'ld like to direct a request to microsoft then you'll need to email
them at
mswish@microsoft.com
with Excel in the subject line.

this is a user based peer-peer discussion group providing assistance and
information on specific requests regarding excel. However, if you're post
was a request asking how comments can be included in formulas then this can
be achieved as per the following example:

=(EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)-EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) +N("number of days in the current
month.")

Regards
JulieD

"Mantvydas" <Mantvydas@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4CC6B9BC-3DF9-4B75-80F7-81BA2211E909@microsoft.com...
> Sometimes in worksheets the formulas can get out of hand, and when you
> open a
> file a while after you last touched it, you can no longer understand some
> formulas you have in your worksheets.
>
> Can you please include syntax for cell function parser, so that it is
> possible to add any comment text after the last bracket and it'd just
> ignore
> it. You can even have an apostrophe like in VB to avoid inveting a wheel.
>
> Say, such a formula including comment could be valid in a cell:
> =(EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)-EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) 'counts number of days in a
> current month.
>
>

You can use the normal cell comment for that.

Another drawlback: A formula can only be a max of 1024
chars long. If you have a really long complex formula and
you're nearly maxed out length wise you still may not be
able comment.

Biff

>-----Original Message-----
>Sometimes in worksheets the formulas can get out of hand,
and when you open a
>file a while after you last touched it, you can no longer
understand some
>formulas you have in your worksheets.
>
>Can you please include syntax for cell function parser,
so that it is
>possible to add any comment text after the last bracket
and it'd just ignore
>it. You can even have an apostrophe like in VB to avoid
inveting a wheel.
>
>Say, such a formula including comment could be valid in a
cell:
>=(EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)-EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) 'counts number
of days in a
>current month.
>
>
>.
>

Thank you for a prompt reply.

Regarding mswish. Strange, because I just used a Help -> Contact Us... right
from the Office Excel 2003 application. It then led to the website, which had
a link called
Make a suggestion
Use our Make a Suggestion Wizard to submit ideas for any Office product or
Office Online feature.
And here I am. Don't [MSFT] people read it and take anything further? Then
they shouldn't be mistaking us with such a link sequence.

Regarding the N function. Wow! The function which returns 0 when text is
given. A smart idea. I would definitely use it. However, it also has a
drawback, that you cannot add integer up if you have text as result of the
function.

Thanks!

"JulieD" wrote:

> Hi
>
> if you'ld like to direct a request to microsoft then you'll need to email
> them at
> mswish@microsoft.com
> with Excel in the subject line.
>
> this is a user based peer-peer discussion group providing assistance and
> information on specific requests regarding excel. However, if you're post
> was a request asking how comments can be included in formulas then this can
> be achieved as per the following example:
>
> =(EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)-EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) +N("number of days in the current
> month.")
>
> Regards
> JulieD
>
> "Mantvydas" <Mantvydas@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:4CC6B9BC-3DF9-4B75-80F7-81BA2211E909@microsoft.com...
> > Sometimes in worksheets the formulas can get out of hand, and when you
> > open a
> > file a while after you last touched it, you can no longer understand some
> > formulas you have in your worksheets.
> >
> > Can you please include syntax for cell function parser, so that it is
> > possible to add any comment text after the last bracket and it'd just
> > ignore
> > it. You can even have an apostrophe like in VB to avoid inveting a wheel.
> >
> > Say, such a formula including comment could be valid in a cell:
> > =(EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)-EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) 'counts number of days in a
> > current month.
> >
> >
>
>
>

Hi

i'm not sure why the link from Excel page lead you to the newsgroups ...
there are MVPs who read these groups who, as far as i understand, represent
ideas and suggestions to MS, but i've seen very little input / comments etc
from MS people themselves in the excel groups (unlike the powerpoint group,
where the head of powerpoint development seems to pop into the group on a
regular basis - but his suggestion too is that people use the email address
i gave you to request changes / improvements etc to MS).

with the use of N('comment here') in the formulas - if you use the + rather
than the & to add the comments to the formula Excel still treats it (in my
tests anyway) as a number rather than text and therefore you can use the
results in other calculations.

Regards
JulieD



"Mantvydas" <Mantvydas@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FD1D438A-6E94-4D33-BE2E-79A5D3EE00E5@microsoft.com...
> Thank you for a prompt reply.
>
> Regarding mswish. Strange, because I just used a Help -> Contact Us...
> right
> from the Office Excel 2003 application. It then led to the website, which
> had
> a link called
> Make a suggestion
> Use our Make a Suggestion Wizard to submit ideas for any Office product or
> Office Online feature.
> And here I am. Don't [MSFT] people read it and take anything further? Then
> they shouldn't be mistaking us with such a link sequence.
>
> Regarding the N function. Wow! The function which returns 0 when text is
> given. A smart idea. I would definitely use it. However, it also has a
> drawback, that you cannot add integer up if you have text as result of the
> function.
>
> Thanks!
>
> "JulieD" wrote:
>
>> Hi
>>
>> if you'ld like to direct a request to microsoft then you'll need to email
>> them at
>> mswish@microsoft.com
>> with Excel in the subject line.
>>
>> this is a user based peer-peer discussion group providing assistance and
>> information on specific requests regarding excel. However, if you're
>> post
>> was a request asking how comments can be included in formulas then this
>> can
>> be achieved as per the following example:
>>
>> =(EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)-EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) +N("number of days in the
>> current
>> month.")
>>
>> Regards
>> JulieD
>>
>> "Mantvydas" <Mantvydas@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:4CC6B9BC-3DF9-4B75-80F7-81BA2211E909@microsoft.com...
>> > Sometimes in worksheets the formulas can get out of hand, and when you
>> > open a
>> > file a while after you last touched it, you can no longer understand
>> > some
>> > formulas you have in your worksheets.
>> >
>> > Can you please include syntax for cell function parser, so that it is
>> > possible to add any comment text after the last bracket and it'd just
>> > ignore
>> > it. You can even have an apostrophe like in VB to avoid inveting a
>> > wheel.
>> >
>> > Say, such a formula including comment could be valid in a cell:
>> > =(EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)-EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) 'counts number of days in a
>> > current month.
>> >
>> >
>>
>>
>>

I'm not sure if I understand your question, but if you want to hide comment text
to a cell that is text, you can do something like:

=A1&B1&"hi there"&TEXT("this is a comment",";;;")

If you give a cell a custom format of ;;; (3 semicolons), then that cell will
look empty. Same thing in the =Text() function.

It kind of mimics the:
=a1+b1+33+N("this is a comment")
version.

Mantvydas wrote:
>
> Thank you for a prompt reply.
>
> Regarding mswish. Strange, because I just used a Help -> Contact Us... right
> from the Office Excel 2003 application. It then led to the website, which had
> a link called
> Make a suggestion
> Use our Make a Suggestion Wizard to submit ideas for any Office product or
> Office Online feature.
> And here I am. Don't [MSFT] people read it and take anything further? Then
> they shouldn't be mistaking us with such a link sequence.
>
> Regarding the N function. Wow! The function which returns 0 when text is
> given. A smart idea. I would definitely use it. However, it also has a
> drawback, that you cannot add integer up if you have text as result of the
> function.
>
> Thanks!
>
> "JulieD" wrote:
>
> > Hi
> >
> > if you'ld like to direct a request to microsoft then you'll need to email
> > them at
> > mswish@microsoft.com
> > with Excel in the subject line.
> >
> > this is a user based peer-peer discussion group providing assistance and
> > information on specific requests regarding excel. However, if you're post
> > was a request asking how comments can be included in formulas then this can
> > be achieved as per the following example:
> >
> > =(EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)-EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) +N("number of days in the current
> > month.")
> >
> > Regards
> > JulieD
> >
> > "Mantvydas" <Mantvydas@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:4CC6B9BC-3DF9-4B75-80F7-81BA2211E909@microsoft.com...
> > > Sometimes in worksheets the formulas can get out of hand, and when you
> > > open a
> > > file a while after you last touched it, you can no longer understand some
> > > formulas you have in your worksheets.
> > >
> > > Can you please include syntax for cell function parser, so that it is
> > > possible to add any comment text after the last bracket and it'd just
> > > ignore
> > > it. You can even have an apostrophe like in VB to avoid inveting a wheel.
> > >
> > > Say, such a formula including comment could be valid in a cell:
> > > =(EOMONTH(TODAY(),0)-EOMONTH(TODAY(),-1)) 'counts number of days in a
> > > current month.
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
> >

--

Dave Peterson