Excel FORMULATEXT function
- Ex1: Basic use-display cell’s formula
- Ex2: Count length of formula
- Ex3: Display formula of another cell
- Ex4: Display formula or a message
Description
The FORMULATEXT function is used to display or return a formula as a text string from a given reference.
Syntax and Arguments
Formula syntax
| FORMULATEXT(reference) |
Arguments
|
Return Value
The FORMULATEXT function returns a formula as text string.
About Errors
The result is #N/A error value if:
1) The reference cell does not contain a formula;
2) The formula in the referenced cell is longer than 8192 characters;
3) Worksheet is protected from displaying formula;
4) The external workbook which contains formula is closed.
The result is #VALUE! error value if:
1) Some invalid character typed in function.
Usage and Examples
Here I take some simple examples to explain how to use the FORMULATEXT function in Excel.
Ex1: Basic use-display cell’s formula
Formula
=FORMULAR(A2)
A1 contains the formula =TODAY() and returns today’ s date,
B2 contains the formula =FORMULATEXT(A2) and returns the text string what displays in the formula bar from cell A2
Result: Display the formula applied in Cell A2 as a text string
Formula
=LEN((FORMULATEXT(A3)))
Explain:
LEN: count characters of a cell
LEN((FORMULATEXT(reference))): count the number of characters of formula from reference.
Result: Count the length of formula In Cell A3
Ex3: Display formula of another cell
Formula
=FORMULATEXT(INDIRECT(B5))
Explain:
INDIRECT(B5): display the value in Cell B5. in my example, the Cell B5 contains the value “B2”.
then
FORMULARTEXR(INDIRECT(B5)) equals to FORMULATEXT(B2)
Result: Display the formula applied in Cell B2
Ex4: Display formula or a message
If the reference not contain a formula, the FORMULATEXT function will returns #N/A error value as below screenshot shown. To avoide the error value appearing, you can combine the ISFORMULA function and the FORMULATEXT function to display formula or a message based on the reference.
Formula
=IF(ISFORMULA(A2),FORMULATEXT(A2),"not a formula")
Explain
If Cell A2 contains a formula, then execute the FORMULATEXT function; if not, display the text string “not a formula”.
Note:This FORMULATEXT functions is a newly added since Excel 2013
Sample File
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