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I want the formula to be in one cell, and the result in another cell. I do not want the answer to populate the cell that contains the formula.

Mark
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  • @Excellll: the proposed duplicate is for the opposite situation (both in the same cell vs. separate cells). I didn't see a good solution there for this question. – fixer1234 Apr 08 '15 at 20:08
  • Excel 2013 has the FORMULATEXT function that you can put in another cell that references the results cell to show the formula. LibreOffice Calc has an equivalent FORMULA function. I'm not aware of a function in 2010 that will give you a live function display. There are copy and paste techniques (add a space or apostrophe at the beginning to force a text display), but that is static (if you change the original formula, you would need to redo it). You could automate keeping it current with VBA. – fixer1234 Apr 08 '15 at 20:28
  • The words you've written don't make any sense to me.  What are you leaving out?  If you describe what you _really want_ (and why), we might be better able to help you. – Scott - Слава Україні Apr 09 '15 at 03:56
  • @Scott: Unless I've misunderstood the question, he's looking for the formula to be displayed as text in one cell, and the result of the formula to be displayed in another cell. – fixer1234 Apr 09 '15 at 06:13
  • @fixer1234: Well, I see that that's how multiple people are interpreting it, but I just don't see how anybody gets that from the text of the question.  Also, it sounds like a somewhat bizarre thing to do.  I was hoping that the OP would explain his use case; this might turn out to be an XY Problem. – Scott - Слава Україні Apr 09 '15 at 06:29
  • Also, BTW, if you folks are interpreting the question correctly, then it should probably be closed as a duplicate of [Can Excel show a formula and its result simultaneously?](http://superuser.com/q/412845/150988)  … … … … … … … … … … … …  D'oh!  Excellll already suggested that. – Scott - Слава Україні Apr 09 '15 at 06:32
  • @Scott: See my comment to Excellll--opposite case. I suggested a different duplicate. – fixer1234 Apr 09 '15 at 06:38

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I'm not sure exactly how to do it but I know a way around it that might help.

Say you have 4 columns , A,B,C and D.

And say you have numbers in A and B and you want C to show the formula and D to show the answer. For this example I'm going to say you want to add the values of A and B. So in the C column you enter '=A1+B1 , note the apostrophe before the "=" sign is important. And then in column D write =A1+B1. This will mean that D will show the answer and C will show the equation, but they won't be linked. So if you change the equation in D you'll have to change it in C and vice versa.

Niall
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