This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
When I type @average( it returns this error message when I go to select data I want to average. This is recent; I have been doing averages in Excel for years (data shown is daily electric use -- month / total $$ charge / # of days / average cost per day). This is happening in all Excel workbooks that I have been using lately.
| Averages: | 80.15 | 31 | 2.54 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 8/26-9/26 2017 | 15.04 | 31 | 0.49 |
| 9/26-10/25 2017 | 16.27 | 33 | 0.49 |
| 10/26-11/23 2017 | 37.96 | 33 | 1.15 |
| 11/28-12/22 2017 | 43.99 | 26 | 1.69 |
A family of Microsoft spreadsheet software with tools for analyzing, charting, and communicating data.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Answer accepted by question author
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(252.8, 79%, 34%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ERA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
It appears you are not alone, and also that switching to 365 possibly wouldn't help anyway: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/i-cannot-get-lotus-commands-to-work-on-my-excel/0025576d-85ab-4f46-bf85-9327b9de7a7b
I can't replicate the error you describe - which version and build are you using? It may be related to the relatively new use of @ as in intersection operator but it doesn't affect either my Windows or Mac versions. I assume you have Lotus compatibility turned on?
@sum is also "missing" first parenthesis.
Work around using =sum and =average is working.
WHY????
Been doing @sum and @averagre for many, many years.
I guess you didn't look at entire question. First is sheet that shows how I have done averages in the past. NO problem.
The second one is the error message I am getting. "The formula is missing an opening...parenthesis." but you can see that the parenthesis IS there.
WHY? Never had a problem until recently
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(70.4, 15%, 16%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3ET5%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
When I type @average( it returns this error message when I go to select data I want to average. This is recent; I have been doing averages in Excel for years (data shown is daily electric use -- month / total $$ charge / # of days / average cost per day). This is happening in all Excel workbooks that I have been using lately.
Averages: 80.15 31 2.54 8/26-9/26 2017 15.04 31 0.49 9/26-10/25 2017 16.27 33 0.49 10/26-11/23 2017 37.96 33 1.15 11/28-12/22 2017 43.99 26 1.69
Assuming your data's in cells:-
A 1 to D 5
=AVERAGE(B1:D5)
23.58467