About calculation operators
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Operators specify the type of calculation that you want to perform on the elements of a formula. Lists support three different types of calculation operators: arithmetic, comparison, and text.
Types of operators
Arithmetic operators To perform basic mathematical operations such as addition, subtraction, or multiplication; combine numbers; and produce numeric results, use the following arithmetic operators.
Arithmetic operator |
Meaning (Example) |
---|---|
+ (plus sign) |
Addition (3+3) |
(minus sign) |
Subtraction (31) |
* (asterisk) |
Multiplication (3*3) |
/ (forward slash) |
Division (3/3) |
% (percent sign) |
Percent (20%) |
^ (caret) |
Exponentiation (3^2) |
Comparison operators You can compare two values with the following operators. When two values are compared by using these operators, the result is a logical value of Yes or No.
Comparison operator |
Meaning (Example) |
---|---|
= (equal sign) |
Equal to (A=B) |
> (greater than sign) |
Greater than (A>B) |
< (less than sign) |
Less than (A<B) |
>= (greater than or equal to sign) |
Greater than or equal to (A>=B) |
<= (less than or equal to sign) |
Less than or equal to (A<=B) |
<> (not equal to sign) |
Not equal to (A<>B) |
Text concatenation operator Use the ampersand (&) to join, or concatenate, one or more text strings to produce a single piece of text.
Text operator |
Meaning (Example) |
---|---|
& (ampersand) |
Connects, or concatenates, two values to produce one continuous text value ("North"&"wind") |
The order in which a list performs operations in a formula
Formulas calculate values in a specific order. A list formula might begin with an equal sign (=). Following the equal sign are the elements to be calculated (the operands), which are separated by calculation operators. Lists calculate the formula from left to right, according to a specific order for each operator in the formula.
Operator precedence
If you combine several operators in a single formula, lists perform the operations in the order shown in the following table. If a formula contains operators with the same precedence for example, if a formula contains both a multiplication and division operator lists evaluate the operators from left to right.
Operator |
Description |
---|---|
Negation (as in 1) |
|
% |
Percent |
^ |
Exponentiation |
* and / |
Multiplication and division |
+ and |
Addition and subtraction |
& |
Connects two strings of text (concatenation) |
= < > <= >= <> |
Comparison |
Use of parentheses
To change the order of evaluation, enclose in parentheses the part of the formula to be calculated first. For example, the following formula produces 11 because a list calculates multiplication before addition. The formula multiplies 2 by 3 and then adds 5 to the result.
=5+2*3
In contrast, if you use parentheses to change the syntax, the list adds 5 and 2 together and then multiplies the result by 3 to produce 21.
=(5+2)*3
In the example below, the parentheses around the first part of the formula force the list to calculate [Cost]+25 first and then divide the result by the sum of the values in columns EC1 and EC2.
=([Cost]+25)/SUM([EC1]+[EC2])