2 strange errors?

[Kosmosis]

Hey, I'm new here and have been driven nuts by two errors.
I have made a series of sheets for tracking student assessment and have formulas referencing within sheets and across sheets.

Recently two glitches started to come up:

1) When I type in a formula all that shows is the formula i typed in. For instance:
[=SUM(A26:A36)]
Instead of showing the sum, that formula is what the cell shows.

2) When referencing across sheets a number is shown. For example, a column of dates is referenced from a first sheet, and it seems a few random cells show a number totally unrelated. These numbers are always 5 digits and start with a 3 or 4, like these: 39855 or 40289. I wonder if they are session numbers or something similar as they tend to increase each time I see one.

Any ideas would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks!

[Marcol]

Hi Kosmosis

Welcome to the forum

1/. You should enter your formula as
=SUM(A26:A36)
(Without the brackets)

2/. I suspect your numbers are indeed dates, try formatting the offending cells > Date
Dates in excel are serial numbers, formatted to display in a recognisable form.

Hope this helps.

[Kosmosis]

I did enter it without the square brackets. I just wrote that here, wasn't sure about how to quote excel formulas.

[grizzly6969]

check to see if the formula has been checked ----- go to Tools / Options / window options and there should not be a check

[grizzly6969]

sorry --- there should not be a check in Formula
This should take care of both problems

[royUK]

Try checking if you have set the sheet to show formulas, not results. In the Formulas Tab there's a button in Formula Auditing - Show Formulas. You must have clicked this, click it again to restore the view.

Excel stores dates as a number, 5 digits. The cells displaying these numbers must need formatting as dataes instead of numbers

[Kosmosis]

Dates problem solved, thanks!

But still a mystery about the formulas. The 'Show formulas' function is off. On the same sheet formulas function normally, but in some cells it just doesn't work.

For instance, typing in =56, the cell doesn't show 56, it shows =56. Also in a formula using cells, when a double click on the cell with the formula, it does not colour code and highlight the cells on the sheet. It is not even registering as a formula, while elsewhere on the sheet, formulas function just fine.

[MarvinP]

Perhaps you have a paren as the first character in the cell like '=56 ? This would tell Excel that this is a string and not a formula.

[Marcol]

Have you checked if the cells you are trying to enter the formula in are formatted as text?

A cell formatted as text will show what you describe when you try to enter a formula.