Excel formula symbols: what every operator and sign means

The symbols in an Excel formula are its operators, and Excel’s own operators reference groups them into four kinds: arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /, %, ^) that do the math, comparison operators (=, >, <, >=, <=, <>) that return TRUE or FALSE, the text operator & that joins values, and reference operators (:, a comma, and a space) that build the cell ranges a formula reads. On top of the operators, every formula opens with =, and parentheses decide what Excel calculates first. This page is the glossary of what each symbol does, with the two that draw the most questions, the dollar sign and the ampersand, handed off to their own guides.

Arithmetic operators

These are the math signs, and they work the way a calculator would lead you to expect, with one that catches people out.

The % sign is the one worth a second look: in an Excel formula it means percent, not the remainder-after-division that it stands for in some other tools. Typing 20% hands Excel 0.2. Building percentage calculations with it gets its own guide in percentages in Excel.

Comparison operators

Comparison operators test two values against each other and return TRUE or FALSE instead of a number. That true-or-false result is what the logical functions run on, so these turn up constantly inside the IF function and the AND, OR, and NOT functions.

Two of these are the usual source of confusion. <> is Excel’s not-equal-to sign, not a mistype, and the two-character operators always put the angle bracket first: >=, <=, <>. A comparison earns its keep only where a TRUE or FALSE is useful, most often as the first argument of an IF.

The ampersand and the dollar sign

Two symbols come up often enough to each have a full guide; here is the short version and where to go for the rest.

& (ampersand) joins two values into one piece of text. =A2&" "&B2 runs a first name, a space, and a last name together into a full name. It is the text concatenation operator, and CONCAT, TEXTJOIN, and the rest of combining text live in how to concatenate in Excel.

$ (dollar sign) locks the part of a cell reference it stands in front of, so that part does not shift when you copy the formula. In $A$1 both the column and the row are pinned; $A1 and A$1 pin one half each. It has nothing to do with currency. The full account of relative, absolute, and mixed references, plus the F4 shortcut, is in cell references in Excel.

Reference operators: the colon, the comma, and the space

Reference operators build the addresses a formula reads. There are three classic ones.

The comma has a second job that causes more trouble than the union operator ever does: it also separates a function’s arguments, like the three parts of an IF. Which character does that separating depends on your operating system locale and Excel settings, and in some configurations it is a semicolon rather than a comma. So a formula pasted from a colleague in another region can arrive with semicolons where your Excel wants commas, and it breaks until the separators match.

Two more reference operators show up in newer Excel. A # placed after a reference, as in =SUM(A2#), is the spilled-range operator, which points at the whole result of a dynamic array formula. And @, as in =@A1:A10, marks implicit intersection. Both sit in the same operators reference as the classic three.

Parentheses and the order of operations

Excel does not simply work left to right. When a formula holds several operators, it runs them in a fixed order of precedence, and only falls back to left-to-right for operators on the same level. From first to last: reference operators, then negation, then percent, then exponentiation, then multiplication and division, then addition and subtraction, then the ampersand that joins text, and comparison operators last.

That order is why =5+2*3 returns 11 rather than 21: the * outranks the +, so Excel multiplies 2 by 3 first and then adds 5. Parentheses are the override. As Microsoft’s operators reference puts it, “To change the order of evaluation, enclose in parentheses the part of the formula to be calculated first.” Wrap the addition and =(5+2)*3 returns 21 instead.

Balance matters as much as placement: every ( needs its ), and a mismatch is one of the routine reasons a formula will not enter at all.

The signs that are not operators

A couple of symbols that people search for as formula operators are not operators at all.

A cell showing ####, a row of number signs, is neither an error nor an operator. It means the column is too narrow to display the value, so widening the column shows it. The lone exception is a date or time that has calculated to a negative value, which Excel also shows as number signs.

The true error values do start with a number sign, #NAME?, #REF!, #VALUE!, #DIV/0! and the rest, but the sign there is part of the error’s name, not something you type. Each one reports a specific failure, and Excel errors explained walks through what every one means.

Curly braces {} are also not operators. They wrap an array constant such as {1,2,3}, and Excel puts them around a formula that was entered as an array. When and why they show up is covered in array formulas in Excel.

The short version

• Arithmetic: +, -, *, /, ^, and %; the percent sign means percent (20% is 0.2), not a remainder.
• Comparison: =, >, <, >=, <=, <> return TRUE or FALSE, which is what the IF function and AND, OR, and NOT test.
• Text: & joins values into text, covered in full in how to concatenate in Excel.
• Reference: : makes a range, a comma unions references (and separates arguments, sometimes as a semicolon by region), a space intersects them; the $ that locks a reference is the whole subject of cell references in Excel.
• Order: references, negation, percent, exponent, multiply and divide, add and subtract, &, then comparison; parentheses override it, which is why =(5+2)*3 is 21 and =5+2*3 is 11.
• Not operators: #### means a column too narrow, the #-prefixed error values are names rather than operators, and {} braces mark an array constant. An = at the very start is simply the signal that the entry is a formula at all.