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I have a column for Length & breath where the value is entered as L*B, and I have a separate column to calculate the area. How do I use the value from the Length & Breath column to solve itself and show the answer in area column. I have tried putting the cell directly. It does not work.

Length & Breath  C2= 3*2   
Area          =C2

This does not work

Please do not suggest to use different columns for length & breath as that is not an option.

shA.t
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Abhishek Bera
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  • Why can't you use different columns? – KSFT Mar 28 '15 at 02:42
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    Sorry. You can't provide arbitrary restrictions on what answers are and are not allowed without explaining why, and "this does not work" is not a meaningful problem description. If your column should be `L*B`, then what is entered should be `=3*2` or `6`, and if you can't do so then you need separate columns, whether you want to have them or not. – Ken White Mar 28 '15 at 02:44
  • The Formula from the length & breath column does not evaluate itself in the area column when written after an equal to sign. The values of the length & breath needs to be displayed before being evaluated. 2*3 when entered as =2*3 gives the area and not the length & breath anymore. Space Restrictions on the sheet does not allow me to use another column. – Abhishek Bera Mar 28 '15 at 02:50
  • Write a macro or User Defined Function (aka *UDF*) to look at the cell, parse the equation out of the rest of the narrative that seems so important and use `Application.Evaluate()` to gain a meaningful result. TBH, that simple equation seems redacted and only tells part of the story. –  Mar 28 '15 at 04:19
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    Yup, [Evaluate](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4471884/turn-a-string-formula-into-a-real-formula) or similar seems the way to go. But it does sound like this is the wrong question, if that's the right answer. – Matt Gibson Mar 28 '15 at 10:45

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I'm not sure what the confusion is about. you just need to cut from the left of the * and the right of the * and multiply them using the below formula

Length & Breath  3*2   
Area             =LEFT(C2,FIND("*",C2,1)-1)*RIGHT(C2,LEN(C2)-FIND("*",C2,1))
Steven Martin
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