Operators in LibreOffice Calc

You can use the following operators in LibreOffice Calc:

Arithmetical Operators

These operators return numerical results.

Operator

Name

Example

+

Addition

1+1

-

Subtraction

2-1

-

Negation

-5

*

Multiplication

2*2

/

Division

9/3

%

Percent

15%

^

Exponentiation

3^2


note

Prefix "-" (negation) has a higher precedence than "^" (exponentiation). For example -3^2 equals 9, which is the square of a negative number.


Comparative operators

These operators return either true or false.

Operator

Name

Example

=

Equal

A1=B1

>

Greater than

A1>B1

<

Less than

A1<B1

>=

Greater than or equal to

A1>=B1

<=

Less than or equal to

A1<=B1

<>

Inequality

A1<>B1


Text operators

The operator combines separate texts into one text.

Operator

Name

Example

&

text concatenation

"Sun" & "day" is "Sunday"


Reference operators

These operators merge cell ranges.

Range has the highest precedence, then intersection, and then finally union.

Operator

Name

Example

:

Range

A1:C108, A:D or 3:13

!

Intersection

SUM(A1:B6!B5:C12)

Calculates the sum of all cells in the intersection; in this example, the result yields the sum of cells B5 and B6.

~

Concatenation or union

Takes two references and returns a reference list, which is a concatenation of the left reference followed by the right reference. Double entries are referenced twice.

=COUNT(A1:B2~B2:C3) counts values of A1:B2 and B2:C3. Note that the cell B2 is counted twice.

=INDEX(A1:B2~C1:D2;2;1;2) selects cell C2, that is, the first cell of the second row, first column, of the second range (C1:D2) of the range list.


note

A reference list is not allowed inside an array expression.


Operator precedence

Associativity and precedence of operators, from highest to lowest precedence.

Associativity

Operator(s)

Comments

left

:

Range.

left

!

Reference intersection (A1:C4!B1:B5 is B1:B4).

left

~

Reference union.

right

+,-

Prefix unary operators. For example, -5 or -A1. Note that these have a different precedence than add and subtract.

left

%

Postfix unary operator % (divide by 100). Note that this is legal with expressions, for example, B1%.

left

^

Power (2^3 is 8).

left

*,/

Multiply, divide.

left

+,-

Binary operations add, subtract. Note that unary (prefix) + and - have a different precedence.

left

&

Binary operation string concatenation. Note that "&" shall be escaped when included in an XML document.

left

=, <>, <, <=,
>, >=

Comparison operators equal to, not equal to, less than, less than or equal to, greater than, greater than or equal to.


note

Prefix "-" has a higher precedence than "^", "^" is left-associative, and reference intersection has a higher precedence than reference union.


note

Prefix "+" and "-" are defined to be right-associative. However, note that typical applications which implement at most the operators defined in this specification (as specified) may implement them as left-associative, because the calculated results will be identical.


note

Precedence can be overridden by using parentheses, so "=2+3*4" computes to 14 but "=(2+3)*4" computes 20.


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