Excel Formula Parenthesis - Sometimes you get the wrong formula result if you don't use them
Excel is a pretty smart application. I've been using Excel intensively for a long while now and I am still amazed by the things Excel is able to perform.
But as smart as it is, there are things it can't know.
For example, let's say you want to find the average of 3 numbers and you enter the following formula:
=2+4+6/3
Well, Excel doesn't know that you want to calculate an average and that it has to first add the first three numbers and then divide the total by 3, which will result in the number 4 - which is the average.
Instead Excel will use what's called the 'operator order of precedence' to determine how to solve this equation.
The 'operator order of precedence' is a complicated way to say that when excel solves a mathematical formula, it solves the multiplication and division parts of a formula first, and only then the addition and subtraction parts.
This means that in the case illustrated above, Excel will first divide 6 by 3, and only then add up the numbers; it would work out something like this:
=2+4+6/3
=2+4+2
=8
And the result will be 8 rather than 4.
To specifically tell Excel in which order to solve the formula, we use parenthesis. For example:
=(2+4+6)/3
This way, Excel will first solve the addition part, and only then divide the total by 3.
So, if a formula you wrote is not producing the result you expected, see if you need to add parenthesis in order to clarify the formula for Excel.