L.2.16.3 Operators

An operator is a symbol that specifies the type of operation to perform on one or more operands. There are arithmetic, comparison, text, and reference operators.

Operators

Family

Operator

Description

Precedence

Reference operators

Binary range operator, which takes two cell reference (L.2.16.3) operands, and results in one reference to the cells inclusive of, and between, those references. For example, SUM(B5:C15), which references 11 cells.

highest

Binary union operator, which takes two cell reference (L.2.16.3) operands, and results in one reference to all those, possibly non- contiguous, cells. For example, SUM((B5:B15,D5:D15))), which references 22 cells, 11 from column B, and 11 from column D. The grouping parentheses are necessary to indicate that the comma is an operator rather than a punctuator separating two arguments.

space

Binary intersection operator, which takes two cell reference (L.2.16.3) operands, and results in one reference to those, possibly non-contiguous, cells that are common. If the intersection is empty, the result is #NULL!. For example, COUNT((B1:C1) (C1:D1)), which results in a reference to C1, while COUNT((B1:D1) (B1,D1)) results in a single reference to B1 and D1.

Arithmetic operators

Unary minus

Percentage (unary postfix), which divides its operand by 100. For example, 10.5%, which results in 0.105.

Exponentiation

Multiplication

Division

Addition

Subtraction

Operators

Text operator

Comparison operators

Text concatenation (Each of the two operands is converted to text, if necessary, before concatenation.)

Equal-to

lowest

Not-equal-to

Less-than

Less-than or equal-to

Greater-than

Greater-than-or-equal-to

Given that cell E38 contains the value 4, and cell F38 contains the value 2, the formula

((-1+E38^2)*3-F38)/2

produces the result 21.5.