FORTRAN is believed to be the first computer language to make use of the equals sign, with the sign being included in revisions to FORTRAN in 1957. However, the equals sign is often used in other fields, such as in computer programming. In math, using the equals sign asserts that two statements or variables are equivalent to one another. Beyond that, Rercorde helped introduce the world at large to concepts of data manipulation and quantification, with theories and instructions on applying mathematics to various domains such as navigation, commerce, land surveying, and astronomy. Recorde’s equals sign and other contributions to mathematical theory and operators gave computer scientists a ubiquitous and universally recognized symbol to assign values and assert a quality. It is arguable that Recorde laid the foundation for the discipline of computer science, as computer science is at its core about processing, creating, and collecting data. So the more equations you know, the more you can converse with the cosmos.” - Neil DeGrasse Tyson A vertical equals sign, rather than a horizontal equals sign, may have been used throughout the 1600s, with the now universally used horizontal equal sign becoming standardized over the course of the 1700s. This gave Recorde’s equals sign some extra influence, as when combined with + and – the equals sign could easily be used to assert mathematical equations that took much longer to write out. However, Recorde had introduced English speakers to the now-famous German symbols for subtraction and addition: “+” and “-”. One reason that Recorde’s symbol may have been slow to catch on was that in the 16th century Latin still heavily influenced communication, and the term “aequalis” was frequently just shortened to “Ae” or “oe” if an abbreviation was required. While Recorde’s new equals sign succinctly implied equality between two values, it wasn’t widely adopted until much later. Photo: By Robert Recorde –, Public Domain, Less than the value in cell E2.A representation of the first known equation, equivalent to 14x + 15 = 71. The next formula returns TRUE if the value in cell E1 is.This formula returns the cube root of 216 (which is 6): =216^(1/3).Reference instead of the literal value.: =E1^E2 A more useful form of the preceding formula uses a cell.Raise 6 to the third power, to produce a result of 64: =2^6 The following formula uses the exponentiation operator to.The next formula concatenates the contents of cell E1 withĬoncatenation is used with text, but concatenation works with values as well.įor example, if cell E1 contains 123 and cell E2 contains 456, the preceding.Produce a new text string: MS-Excel: ="MS-"&"Excel" The two literal text strings (each enclosed in quotes) to The following formula joins (concatenates).Note: Reference operators work with cell references. Produces one reference to cells common to two references.
(Reference Operator) (single space) Intersection. Combines multiple cell or range references into one reference. Produces one reference to all the cells between two references. & Text concatenation ^ Exponentiation = Logical comparison (equal to) > Logical comparison (greater than) = Logical comparison (greater than or equal to) Logical comparison (not equal to) : (colon) Range. Percent sign after a number divides the number by 100 and formats the cell as Symbol Operator + Addition - Subtraction / Division * Multiplication % Entering a
Following table shows the Excel-supported An operator is the basic element of a formula, it is a