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In MS Excel, what symbol must a formula always begin with?
+
@
=
=
In Microsoft Excel, every formula must begin with an equals sign (=) to signal to the application that the contents of the cell should be treated as an expression to be evaluated rather than plain text. Without this symbol, Excel interprets the input as a literal string.
In Microsoft Excel, every formula must begin with an equals sign (=) to signal to the application that the contents of the cell should be treated as an expression to be evaluated rather than plain text. Without this symbol, Excel interprets the input as a literal string.
Result=Operator+Operands
Example:=SUM(A1:A5)
When a cell entry begins with =, the Excel calculation engine triggers the parser to identify functions, operators, and cell references. The engine follows a standard operator precedence (PEMDAS/BODMAS) to compute the result: R=f(x1тАЛ,x2тАЛ,тАж,xnтАЛ), where R is the final value. If the symbol is absent, the input is stored as a string data type (text) with no mathematical properties.
The equals sign (=) acts as the primary delimiter between raw input and executable code.
Excel automatically switches the cell format to 'General' or 'Number' when a valid formula is detected.
While plus (+) or minus (тИТ) can sometimes be used by legacy compatibility modes, the = sign is the strict standard.
A formula can also start with an '@' symbol if it uses legacy implicit intersection, but '=' remains the universal requirement.
Enables dynamic recalculation when source data changes.
Allows complex data manipulation through built-in function libraries.
If the '=' sign is missing, users may mistakenly treat numerical results as static text.
Invalid formulas can return error codes such as #DIV/0! or #VALUE!.
Financial modeling and accounting.
Data analysis and statistical evaluation.
Automated reporting.
Option A (+) is often auto-corrected by Excel to =+, but it is not the standard requirement.
Option B (@) is reserved for implicit intersection in newer dynamic array versions of Excel.
Option D (#) is used in Excel for error messages, such as #REF! or #NULL!, not for starting expressions.
C is correct тАФ All formulas in Microsoft Excel must strictly start with an equals sign (=) to initiate computation.
In Excel competitive exams, remember that = is the mandatory trigger; symbols like + or тИТ are treated as literal text unless they are converted by the engine's auto-correction feature.