What overrides the order of operations in Excel?

Answer 1

Anything in brackets is done first. Then power of, in other words exponetiations, like 10². After that, multiplication and division have equal precedence and are done left to right in the order they come. Finally addition and subtraction are done in equal precedence to each other. A simple acronym for all of this, using the first letter or each operation, is BOMDAS. That will help you remember. See the related question below for more detailed examples.

Answer 2

the Order of operation is:dividemultiplysubtractadding

Answer 3

Think of BOMDAS

Brackets

Of

Multiplication

Division

Addition

Subtraction

It is the order in which parts of a calculation are done when you have a mix of operators. "Of" relates to power of. Spreadsheets follow the laws of mathematics. Calculations are not always done left to right. For example:

=10+2*5

The answer here is 20, and not 60 which many people would think. The 2*5 is done first because multiplication is done before addition. So the 2 is multiplied by 5, giving 10, and that 10 is added to the first 10, giving 20. As anything inside brackets is done first, changing the formula as follows will give 60:

=(10+2)*5

Here the 10 and 2 are added, because the calculation is inside the brackets. That gives 12, which when multiplied by 5 gives 60.

Here is another one, showing that power of is done before multiplication. It will square 10, giving 100 and then multiply it by 3, giving 300.

=3*10²

To do the power of in Excel it is actually typed in either of the following ways, one using and operator and the other a function:

=10^2

=POWER(10,2)

This would result in the previous example being done like either of these:

=3*10^2

=3*POWER(10,2)

In this one, because of the brackets the 3 will be multiplied by the 10 first, and the resulting 30 will be squared, giving 900:

=(3*10)^2

Multiplications and Divisions actually have equal precedence. So they are always done left to right. So in this one the multiplication is done first and then the division:

=3*2/4

In this one the division is done first and then the multiplication:

=3/2*4

Because of this, BOMDAS can also be written as BODMAS.

Additions and subtractions also have equal precedence with each other and so are done left to right, but only after multiplications and divisions have been completed. Only brackets can change that, as in the second example.

Answer 4

The parenthesis is the primary way to override the order of operations in Excel, just like in standard mathematical notation.

The following formula uses the default order of operations:

= 10*3+10/2/5

It is equivalent to:

= ( 10*3 ) + ( ( 10/2 ) /5 )

And results in the value 31.

To change the order of operations, place the parenthesis elsewhere, such as:

= 10* ( 3+10/2 ) /5

Which is equivalent to:

= ( 10* ( 3+ ( 10/2 ) ) ) /5

And results in the value 16.

Spaces in the formulas are optional and are used for readability.

Answer 5

This is almost exactly the standard algebraic rules, except that powers are not evaluated from right to left in Excel:

Anything between parentheses is evaluated (calculated) first.

Then, powers are evaluated from left to right.

Then, multiplications and divisions are evaluated, from left to right.

Then, addition and subtraction are evaluated, from left to right.

Note that you can always add parentheses, for additional clarity. For example, = 1 + 2 * 3 is evaluated as 7, but if you find this confusing, you can write it as = 1 + (2 * 3), with the same result.

Answer 6

Exponentiation, which is to the power of. In Excel you can use the ^ symbol or the POWER function to achieve it. Both of the following do the same thing:

=10^2

=POWER(10,2)

Answer 7

The ^ operator, which is the power of. So 10^2 is 10 to the power of 2 or 10 squared. Enclosing things in brackets can change the priority, but the ^ is the highest of the standard operators.

Answer 8

There is no "following" here, but the order of precedence is * / + -