excel: formula reverts back to edit mode??!!!

[rabarnes]

Hi,
Hope someone can help. I'm using a spreadsheet with VLookup formulas pointing to another sheet within that workbook.
I want to edit the range which the formula is looking at so I went into the formula and simply changed it from 40,000 rows of data, to 25,000 rows of data. However, when I press return, for some reason the cell shows the formula itself, not the result.

i.e.

Original cell:
Formula
=VLOOKUP($B$27,Database!$A$4:$AY$40000,5,FALSE)
Result
"Polythene"

Edited cell:
Formula
=VLOOKUP($B$27,Database!$A$4:$AY$25000,5,FALSE)
Result
=VLOOKUP($B$27,Database!$A$4:$AY$25000,5,FALSE)


To make things a bit more confusing, the first 4 cells in which I edited the range worked fine. Now every time I edit any formula in my spreadsheet, it shows the formula itself, not the result.

Help!
Thanks

Rowan

 

[texasalynn]

first make sure that the cells aren't formatted as Text. Then do a find and replace
Find "="
Replace "="
without the quotes

 

[R_Stephens]

Hi Rowan,

Check you havent changed the cell formats to Text for those formulae that are showing the actual formula rather than the result.
If you have set them to Text, when you change them back again you will need to recopy the formula into them (or select each cell, press F2 then the Enter key, so that Excel recognises it as a new formula)


Hope it helps

Richard

 

[jdavis9]

or when you modified the formula you entered a space before the =.

 

[rabarnes]

Quite right guys thanks, the cells were set as Text.

Quick and easy reply for my first post!

Cheers