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excelundefined-behaviormathematical-expressions

Why does Excel translate `=10**-2` to `=0.1`?

Try pasting =10**-2 into a cell in MS Excel. After pressing Enter, it turns it to =0.1. I can't seem to find any documentation for **, but it appears to be a pretty odd exponentiation-like operator that cannot be used in an Excel formula (e.g., =A1**A2 is invalid`).

If this operator is not an exponentiation operator, what is it?

(N.B.: mathematically, 10-2 = 0.01, not 0.1)

Solution

  • ** is the same as E

    =4E3 == 4**3 == 4000