If you have come across a situation where Excel is showing a formula and not the result you know how frustrating this can be. The reason for this is fairly obvious but how to get it back to being a formula requires that you trick Excel. The reason this happens is because the cells which contain the formula have been formatted as text.
Why is excel showing the formula not result?
[Solution] Excel Formula Shows Formula but not Result
No equal sign. First, you may have forgotten the equal sign. Space before equal sign. A subtle variation of this problem can occur if there is one Formula wrapped in quotes. Finally, make sure the formula is not wrapped in quotes. Cell format set to text, and finally, every once in a while, see more are a couple more things to keep in mind.
Every once in a while, you might find Excel behaving in a bizarre or unexpected way. One example is when you accidentally trigger the scroll lock feature. Another example is when one or more formulas suddenly stops working.
Finally, every once in a while, you might see a formula that is well-formed in every way, but somehow does not display a result. If you run into a formula like this, check to see if the cell format is set to Text.
So, why is the formula displayed instead of the result?
I can figure it out! The formula is entered but the formula is displayed instead of the result. A cell in an Excel worksheet can have many formats and the default format of all cells in a new sheet is General (which would not cause this problem). Hence, a possible reason could be that the cell in which the formula is entered is formatted as Text. What’s the fix?
There’s a setting that makes Excel display formulas only instead of their results. This setting might have been enabled in your spreadsheet somehow. To change it back, use this shortcut: If an empty cell is formatted as text, then when you type the formula and hit enter, it will never show the result.
Similarly, if you already had the result of your formula and later the cell is formatted to Text, it will not change to the formula in text. This implies that the Text format must have been applied before the formula was entered, making the formula appear as text.
How to display formula instead of result in Excel?
Check if the cells which display formula instead of result are formatted as text. If so, then change the cell format to General. Or click on the formula tab and then select Show formulas.
Why can’t I get the formula back to being a formula?
The reason for this is fairly obvious but how to get it back to being a formula requires that you trick Excel. The reason this happens is because the cells which contain the formula have been formatted as text.
How to recover calculated formulas in Excel without the result?
You can try Stellar Repair for Excel software to recover engineering and shared formulas. Sometimes, when you type a formula in a cell of worksheet and press Enter, instead of showing the calculated result, it returns the formula as text. For instance, Excel cell shows: Why Does Excel Show or Display the Formula Not the Result ?