Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Viewing Formula Results.

Viewing Formula Results

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 28, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365

1

When you are developing complex formulas, or when you are examining the formulas developed by others, it can often be beneficial to look at the results of a particular portion of a formula. For instance, consider the following formula:

=(C2+F7)*C3/F8

You may want to know the value of C3/F8. In order to find this out, you can do the following:

  1. Press F2 to edit the formula in the cell.
  2. Select the portion of the formula whose value you want to see. In this instance, you would select C3/F8.
  3. Press F9. Excel replaces the portion of the formula with its result.

At this point, you have two options. If you press Enter or otherwise move to a different cell, Excel assumes you have edited the formula and makes the change. The second option is to press the Esc key, which tells Excel to not make any changes to the formula.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12157) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Viewing Formula Results.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Inserting Large Numbers of Checkboxes

Excel provides a number of tools you can use to help create forms. One of those tools is a checkbox. If you need to place ...

Discover More

Displaying Negative Times

Excel allows you to perform math using times as operands. If you subtract a later time from an earlier time, you should ...

Discover More

Using Find and Replace to Find Conditionally Formatted Cells

You can use Find and Replace as a quick way to count any number of matches in your document. You cannot, however, use it ...

Discover More

Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Quickly Selecting Cells

Need to quickly select a range of cells? Perhaps the easiest way is to use both the mouse and the keyboard together, as ...

Discover More

Searching for All

When you are working on a worksheet (particularly a large one), you may want to search for and possibly copy information ...

Discover More

Dates Copied Incorrectly

Under the right circumstances, you may notice problems when copying dates from one workbook to another. This tip explains ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five more than 9?

2022-05-28 10:03:22

J. Woolley

You might also consider Evaluate Formula in the Formula Auditing section of the Formulas ribbon.

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2026 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.