Excel Formula

[Platinum]

Is there a advantage of using =SUM(a1+a2) over =a1+a2? Or is it just that the former is a neater way of writing it?

[xiphias]

You could use =SUM(a1:a2), which is the better way of using sum. That way you can extend it with little hassle to more cells.

[GreenV8S]

Platinum said:

Is there a advantage of using =SUM(a1+a2) over =a1+a2? Or is it just that the former is a neater way of writing it?

It would make sense to use SUM if the thing you were summing was a range. Summing a single value as per your example doesn't make any sense.

[Platinum]

So using the sum() 'tag' for a simple 'one cell' + 'another cell' calculation has no advantage? (When using '+' NOT ':' )

I hope that makes sense...

I do use ':' when summing more than two cells, in case you thought I was mad.

[GreenV8S]

Platinum said:

So using the sum() 'tag' for a simple 'one cell' + 'another cell' calculation has no advantage? (When using '+' NOT ':'

Correct. In that example you're calling SUM with a single argument, which is the value of the expression 'a1+a2'.