The Formula is Missing An opening or closing parenthesis

[Rebecah]

I can't get past @sum( without it giving me this error message when I go to select the items I want to include. I've seen many different answers but haven't found one that is specific to my error message.
Hopefully someone can help me.
Thanks
Rebecah

 

[6StringJazzer]

What is that "@" doing there?
If you type

=SUM(

then click on other cells or ranges, and the click ENTER, in my version Excel adds the closing parenthesis for you. This may also be true in old versions, but I can't check it. At a minimum you would type the ")" and hit ENTER.

Can you be very specific, keystroke by keystroke, about how you are entering the formula, exactly what you are entering, and at what point you get this error message?

 

[Rebecah]

I have been writing formulas for years. When I learned I was taught @sum(your formula) and it has always worked. I'm trying to break the habit and moving to the =(your formula)

So here's what I'm doing:
Go to the cell I want the formula in and start typing =( at this point I attempt to select the cells that I want to add and it give me The Formula is Missing An opening or closing parenthesis. It won't even allow me to select any cells to put in the formula. I can select a cell and hit the plus select another cell and hit plus and that seems to work but that is a lot of work when that isn't how it is supposed to work.

Any thought?
Rebecah

 

[6StringJazzer]

I cannot reproduce what you are describing.

The "@" is a very old artifact that was used in other spreadsheet programs like Lotus 1-2-3 and I think Excel may have allowed it for compatibility at some point. But don't use it. It has another meaning in new versions of Excel and will cause problems.

That's why I asked for keystroke-by-keystroke. Above you said you start typing =( but do you mean =SUM( ?

Even if I deliberately enter a formula that is missing a paren, I don't get that message. I get a message that there is a "typo" and it offers to fix it for me. If Excel 2013 has behavior that is a lot different than 365 this will be hard for me to diagnose much further.

 

[Rebecah]

Okay. Thanks for trying

 

[MARK858]

Even if I deliberately enter a formula that is missing a paren, I don't get that message

Hi Jeff, I can get that message to come up in 365 after entering the full formula or if I hit Enter/Return immediately after typing the first open bracket i.e. type

=IFERROR(

and press enter

 

[6StringJazzer]

I am using 365 v. 2311. It's the home version so does not have some features found only in Enterprise versions.

This is what I get for your first example

That one's odd because it's a known name and works if I complete the formula.

In your second example I get this after hitting ENTER

Here is the other thing I get that is more directly relevant to the OP

 

[MARK858]

The longer example is taken from a post on the site you Moderate on where they had the same issue.

I was on a home version of 365 when I tested (I'll check the version when I get in tonight [but it is 64bit])

Either way it doesn't popup until you hit enter and means the OP needs to either complete or correct the formula.