HP Prime - Spreadsheet obscurity

[bluesun08]

What is the difference between the two options when i want to name a cell "price"?

1. Format -> Name -> price

2. ="price"

[Joe Horn]

Quote:

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What is the difference between the two options when i want to name a cell "price"?

1. Format -> Name -> price

2. ="price"

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The first option ties a name to that cell, so that you can refer to it elsewhere by name instead of by row & column. E.g. If A1 is named "price" and has a value of 5.95, then you can type =price*1.08 into cell A2 and get A1's value plus 8%.

The second options merely sets the value (not the name) of the cell to "price". Can't do much with that.

[bluesun08]

o.k. thank you. that means that i basically can forget the "=" rule or is there a reasonable use of the "=" operation?

[Joe Horn]

Quote:

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o.k. thank you. that means that i basically can forget the "=" rule or is there a reasonable use of the "=" operation?

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The = matters! You need to use it whenever you want a cell to change automatically based on what other cells are doing. For example, type 100 in A1. Now type A1+5 in A2. You'll see A2 say 105, of course. But now change A1 to 200. You might expect A2 to automatically turn into 205, but it doesn't, because the expression 'A1+5' isn't stored in A2, just the result of the original calculation, which was 105.

But now type =A1+5 into cell A2. Then change A1, and watch A2 automatically change. Cool, huh? Almost as much fun as VisiCalc on the HP-75!

Hope that helps!