Okay, entering formulas into LibreOffice Calc fails way too often. I never know if it's going to work.

- I make a new row. Sometimes I can copy a formula from the previous row and paste in and it works. Other times, no.
- It didn't work today so I tried manually entering in formula. It just shows the formula in the cell but does not calculate the result.
- Delete row, try a new row.
- Confirm that formula is correct multiple times.

What incantation am I missing?

@libreoffice

@efialto Yeah, it's so strange. Format is set to text. It's just a lookup to another sheet. Exact same formula as the row that works but adjusted for different reference.

The act of editing it in the formula field somehow seems to change it from a formula to text. I can enter into a row with functioning formula in a cell, and any edit, even just deleting and retyping a ")" at the end of formula somehow stops the formula from working when I stop editing.

@libreoffice

@libreoffice
Found the answer on this thread.
"Eventually I realised that, after copying and pasting the array formula, I should have pressed ‘Ctrl+Shift+Enter’ instead of just ‘Enter’. Talk about obscure input requirements. I don’t see why ‘Enter’ wouldn’t be sufficient."

Explanation:
"Array/matrix mode formulas calculate differently than in “normal” mode."

Thanks to @efialto for your attempt to help me!

#LibreOffice

https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/copy-formula-not-working/24756

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I was performing those actions at the top of the spreadsheet. If I scroll to the bottom and add a new row there and do the exact same thing, it works.

It's as though the application does not realize that I've entered a formula and is just treating it as text? I must be overlooking something.

Creating a new row at various points in the document and trying the formula sometimes works, sometimes not.

#LibreOffice