Resolve Excel Formula Not Showing Result Error
Does your Excel spreadsheet display the text of the formula you entered, not the result? This blog explains the possible reasons behind the problem. Also, it describes a solution to fix the “Excel Formula Not Showing Results” error. You can try expert solutions to restore techniques and share formulas.
When you enter a formula in a worksheet cell and press Enter, the result of the calculation may not be displayed and the formula is returned as text. For example, an Excel cell displays.
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Why is Excel Showing Formulas Instead of Results?
The following are possible causes that could lead to the “Excel displays formulas instead of results” issue:
- You accidentally enabled “Show Formulas” in Excel.
- Spreadsheet cells are formatted as text.
- The AutoCalculate feature in Excel is set to manual.
- Excel assumes your formulas are text (not following syntax).
- You type numbers into cells with unnecessary formatting.
How to Solve the Excel Formula Not Showing Result Error?
Sometimes errors in Excel results prevent the application from displaying the formula text. To solve the issue, follow the solutions below.
Solution 1: Disable Show Formulas
If Excel only displays formulas but no results, then check whether you intentionally or accidentally enabled Excel’s “Show Formulas” feature. Instead of applying a calculation and then displaying the result, this function displays the actual text you typed.
You can use the “Show Formulas” feature to quickly see all of your formulas, but it can be a hassle if you don’t know about the feature and accidentally enable it. To disable this mode, open Formulas and click Show Enabled Formulas. If it was previously enabled, just click to deactivate it.
Solution 3: Change Calculation Option from “Manual” to “Automatic”
There is an “Auto-Calculate” function in Excel that tells Excel to perform calculations automatically or manually.
If “Excel formulas don’t show results”, it may be because the automatic calculation function is set to manual. This problem is not easily detected because the formula is calculated in one cell, but if you copy the formula to another cell, the original calculation will be preserved and will not be recalculated based on the new location. To work around this issue:
- In Excel, click the File tab in the upper left corner of the screen.
- In the window that opens, click “Options” in the left bar menu.
- Excel Options dialog, select Formulas from the left menu and change Calculation Options to Automatic (if it is currently set to Manual).
- Click OK. This will redirect you to your sheet.
Solution 4: Enter the Formula in the Correct Format
That’s the correct way to tell Excel that your text is a formula. If you do not type a formula in a specific format, Excel treats it as plain text and does not perform any calculations based on the formula. Therefore, observe the following when writing formulas:
- Equal Sign: Every formula in Excel must start with an equal sign (=). If you miss this, Excel will mistake your formula for plain text.
- Space Before the Equal Sign: You may not enter space before the equal sign. Perhaps it is difficult for us to detect a single space, but it violates the rules of writing Excel formulas.
- Formulas in Quotation Marks: You need to make sure that your formulas are not enclosed in quotation marks. People often make the mistake of writing formulas in quotation marks, but in Excel, quotation marks are used to represent text. Then your formula will not be evaluated. But you can add quotes inside the formula if you want, for example: =SUM.IF.SET(F5:F9,G5:G9, “>30”).
- Nesting Restrictions: If you want to nest two or more Excel functions inside each other, for example, using nested IF loops, follow these rules:
- The 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010, and 2007 versions of Excel only allow up to 64 nested functions.
- Excel 2003 and earlier only allowed up to seven nested functions. Solution 5: Enter N.
Direct Solution to Fix Excel Formula Not Showing Results Problem
If you tried the manual solutions above and you still can’t solve the “Excel formulas don’t show results” problem, you can try to repair your Excel file with the help of Expert Suggested Software to recover data from corrupt Excel file without loss any data.
This reliable and powerful software can scan and repair Excel files (.XLSX and.XLS). It also helps recover all file components like formulas, cell formatting, etc. Equipped with an interactive GUI, this software is very easy to use, and its advanced algorithm makes it easy to fight Excel errors.
Trial Limitations: The free trial version of this utility allows the user to preview the recovered XLSX files on their computer screen. For unlimited recovery, then purchase the licensed version.
- Lunch Repair Program on the Windows platform.
- Click the Add Files button to upload your Excel file.
- Pick the Excel file to recover at the destination that needs to be repaired, and then press the Open button.
- After that, press the Repair Tab to start the repair process.
- Preview the complete list of repaired your Excel files.
Conclusion
Excel formulas not showing results is a common error message that MS Excel often displays, but there is no need to panic; it can be easily solved using the solutions listed above. This guide describes all possible symptoms caused by this Excel formula not showing result problem and different ways to solve them.
