Using Formula in Calc Spreadsheet


Using Formulas for Numbers (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication & Division)

A formula is an expression which calculates the value of a cell. You can enter formulas in two ways, either by using the function Wizard or by typing directly into the cell or into the input line. All formulas begin with an equals sign. When typing in directly you need to start a formula with one of the symbols like = (equal) or - (minus) or + (plus)

Operators in formulas –

Formulas in Calc are like mathematical equations. You can use combinations of numbers cell references and operators to perform simple to complex calculations. There are following operator used in LibreOffice Calc. 

Order of operations: The Order of operations in Calc follows the same rules you learned in math class. A common technique for remembering the order of operations is the abbreviation (or, more properly, the “acronym”) “PEMDAS”:

  • P Operations enclosed in Parentheses
  • E Exponential calculations ( 3^2, for example)
  • MD Multiplication and Division, whichever comes first
  • AS Addition and subtraction, whichever comes first

For Example the formula 3^2*2+1 is evaluated in the following order.

3^2*2+1      # 3^2

9*2+1          # 9*2

18+1

19

To avoid mistakes in formulas it’s a good practice to use Parenthesis When you are not certain about the order of operations.

Concatenation operator (&)

It is common for users to place text in spreadsheets. A lot of times we need to join pieces of text found in different cells. For this purpose Calc has the concatenation operator &. Notice that when you use text in formulas you must surround it with quotation marks “  “.

Some example of LibreOffice Calc formula is given below:-

Is the also possible to nest functions in formulas, as shown in the above table. You can also nest functions within functions. The function Wizard assists you with nested functions.


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