I was just fooling around with the instructions from the latest “Office for Mere Mortals” as follows (for those that don’t receive it):
EVALUATE A STATEMENT
There are some hidden or undocumented functions you can use in Excel. For example, an old Excel 4.0 macro function called Evaluate can be used to calculate the result of a text expression such as 365*43 entered in an Excel cell. Information about the function is difficult to find but here, in a nutshell, is how to use it.
Begin by typing the text expression in a cell, for example into B1 you can type 365*43 and, in cell A1 type a label such as Expression to evaluate: so you know what is what. Now choose Insert, Name, Define and type the word answer in the Names in workbook area and in the Refers to area type =Evaluate($B$1) and click Add and then Ok. Now, in the cell where you want the answer to the calculation 365 * 43 to appear type =answer.
You can replace the expression in cell B1 with any valid expression of the type that Excel can calculate such as 9^3 to find the result of 9 cubed.
Why use this? For starters it is handy for teaching purposes – you can display a cell formula as text in one cell and the result in a neighboring cell knowing that the display text will always match the result. _______
Anyhow, I can’t make it work – what am I missing?
