How to use brackets in Excel formulas

How to use brackets in Excel formula's

Sometimes you will need to use brackets, (also known as 'braces'), in formula.

This is to ensure that the calculations are performed in the order that you need.
The need for brackets occurs when you mix plus or minus with divide or multiply.

• Mathematically speaking the * and / are more important than + and - .
• The * and / operations will be calculated before + and - .

Example 1 : The wrong answer !

5
10
2
25	=G6+G7*G8

• You may expect that 5 + 10 would equal 15 and then 15 * 2 would equal 30.
• But because the * is calculated first Excel sees the calculation as 10 * 2 resulting in 20 and then 20 + 5 resulting in 25

Example 2 : The correct answer.

5
10
2
30	=(G6+G7)*G8

By placing brackets around (5+10) Excel performs this part of the calculation first, resulting in 15. Then the 15 is multiplied by 2 resulting in 30.