Definition of signs

[mcantrell]

What does it mean if I use the signs "*" and & in equations?

Thanks for any help

[ChemistB]

Excel uses * for multiplication or as a wildcard in searches
& is used to concatinate ie ="text" & "book" shows textbook
So =VLOOKUP("*"&"test"&"*", $A$1:$B$50,2,FALSE) will look in A1:A50 for any word that contains test. Does that help?

[martindwilson]

* is a multiplier e.g. =2*6 =12 , & is used to join text eg"sss"&"wwww" = "ssswwww"

[mcantrell]

Thx...very helpful...especially the * as a wildcard. That explains the equation I was looking @