Formulas typed in a cell suddenly appear as text

[Paulsghs]

I’m trying to create a line chart which shows the intersection of circulator pump output curves with the load line of a network of pipes. I have to copy either text, blanks (" "), or positive numeric values from many cells in sheet “Source” to another sheet “Result” for the purpose of constructing a line chart. In cell Source.A2 I have some text, specifically “NRF-36” a pump model. When I type “=$Source.A2” in cell A2 of Sheet “Result” the text string “=$Source.A1” appears in cell Result.A2 instead of the text “NRF-36” from cell Source.A1.

If I can get the contents of Source.A2 to copy to Result.A2 then I have to figure out how to avoid copying negative values. I was thinking of using =if(Source.A2>0, Source.A2, if(Source.A2=" “,” ",Source.A2)).

My greyhounds appreciate your help. PaulsGHs.

[jimk]

Go to View → Show Formula and see if it fixes the problem.

The formula works for me.

=IF($Source.A2>0;$Source.A2;IF($Source.A2=" ";" ";$Source.A2))

However, it does the same as =$Source.A2. Perhaps this instead:

=IF($Source.A2>=0;$Source.A2;"")

To have Calc fill in the address, select a cell on Result sheet, press = and then select the cell on Source sheet.

[Paulsghs]

The original formula copies text entries in addition to positive numerics, it does not copy negative numerics.

[jimk]

Incorrect. If it’s negative, then both conditions will be false, producing Source.A2 as seen in the “OtherwiseValue” at the end of the formula. An example: =IF(1=2;"Yes";IF(1=3;"Yes";"No")) produces “No”. Documentation: IF.

[Paulsghs]

I found the problem. The cells were formatted as text. When I changed the cell format to number > general it worked properly.