# EVAL function

## Description

Call xlfEvaluate on cell.

## Syntax

EVAL(cell)

 cell is a cell to be evaluated.

The Excel function xlfEvaluate uses the Excel engine to evaluate its argument, just like pressing F9 evaluates selected text in the formula bar. A naked string like abc is interpreted as a named range and it's corresponding value is returned. To get EVAL to treat it like a string it must be enclosed in quotes, "abc". If a string is a case-insensitive match with TRUE or FALSE it is converted to the appropriate boolean value. If the string matches a known Excel error then the string is converted to an error type. If the string looks like a function call then Excel calls the function and returns the result. Use an initial equal sign (=) to force Excel to evaluate the string as a function. To parse a string as a date use the VALUE() function.

Two dimensional ranges are enclosed in curly braces, use commas for field seperators, and semi-colons for record seperators. For example, evaluating the string {1.23,"abc";fAlSe,#N/A} results in the 2x2 range consisting of the number 1.23, the string abc, the boolean FALSE value, and a "not available" error type. Excel will not attempt to evaluate any item in a multi-dimensional range as a function.