This is my formula:
IF(COUNTMATCHES(Tutorial::A,A3)=1,"- - -",A3)
Tutorial::A is a column of numbers and blanks.
A3 is the number 1
As I wrote this, I realised that my brain had not told my fingers to use Countif … which I now am!
But then I thought that the if is returning either a string or a number … not an array. Why does it return an array?
Mac Studio (M4 Max, 2025)
That's the result of "dynamic array formulas" introduced in Numbers 14.4. Numbers sees your reference to A (an array) and guesses you want an array output.
You can tell Numbers you don't want an array by using the "explicit intersection" operator @ , something like this.
=IF(@COUNTMATCHES(Tutorial::A,A2)=1,"- - -",A2)
This is "lightly documented" (meaning almost no documentation at all). But Numbers generally follows the behavior of Excel with respect to dynamic array formulas. That means if you want to investigate further then you can search for (or consult AI regarding) dynamic array formulas in Excel to get an idea of how they work in Numbers.
SG
That's the result of "dynamic array formulas" introduced in Numbers 14.4. Numbers sees your reference to A (an array) and guesses you want an array output.
You can tell Numbers you don't want an array by using the "explicit intersection" operator @ , something like this.
=IF(@COUNTMATCHES(Tutorial::A,A2)=1,"- - -",A2)
This is "lightly documented" (meaning almost no documentation at all). But Numbers generally follows the behavior of Excel with respect to dynamic array formulas. That means if you want to investigate further then you can search for (or consult AI regarding) dynamic array formulas in Excel to get an idea of how they work in Numbers.
SG
Why is a cell spilling?
