Transferring complex formulas from Excel to Apple Numbers

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Level 1

4 points

Transferring complex formulas from Excel to Apple Numbers

I having my first try with Apple numbers, I created very large spreadsheet on Excel containing a grade of American pocket watches, I could enter a serial number and it would give you the relevant information of the model.

I had to get help to create the formulas for this. I would like to try replicate this on Apple Numbers how difficult is it to transfer formulas from Excel to ‘Numbers’ thanks for any advice.

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Transfer formulas from Excel

iPad Pro, iPadOS 16

Posted on Oct 20, 2025 8:28 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Camelot

Level 9

58,101 points

Oct 20, 2025 11:22 AM in response to Lochwinnoch

The only way to be sure is to try it and see.

The vast majority of Excel functions have direct equivalents in Numbers and convert directly, with no additional work needed.

There are some extended functions in the statistical and financial categories that don't have direct equivalents, and Numbers doesn't support Excel macros/VBScript, or dynamic SQL database queries, so if you're relying on those you may be out of luck.

It sounds like you're just doing some kind of LOOKUP() function against a large table, though, which is pretty trivial to replicate.

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Answer 2

Yellowbox

Level 7

21,885 points

Oct 20, 2025 2:29 PM in response to Lochwinnoch

Hi Lochwinnoch,

Welcome to the Charm of Numbers!

These Documents are useful when new to Numbers:

Compatibility with Microsoft Office.

See all the ways our productivity apps support popular Microsoft Office features.

Numbers - Compatibility - Apple

Formulas and Functions Help – Apple Support (AU)

Have a look at the built-in Numbers templates.

Don't forget the Help menu in Numbers.

Type an = symbol in a numbers cell to see the very helpful Functions Browser.

Regards,

Ian.

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Answer 3

Badunit

Level 7

30,228 points

Oct 20, 2025 2:42 PM in response to Lochwinnoch

No macros in Numbers. If you need macros, you might want to stick with Excel. Some things can be done with shortcuts and scripts, if you choose to rewrite your macros as scripts, but there are no buttons or anything like that.

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Answer 4

Lochwinnoch Author

Level 1

4 points

Oct 20, 2025 2:06 PM in response to Camelot

Camelot,

Thanks for your prompt reply, the spreadsheet has 2,300 rows and 43 columns of information so I have a lot of work to do first. Hopefully it just as you say just a replication and supports the macros and it gives me the pitfalls to look out for.

many thanks

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