Almost all functions I try to use in Numbers give me a syntax error with no explanation what is wrong (red triangle with exclamation mark, only says "The formula contains a syntax error." when clicked). I'm on MacOS, NOT in the iPad version and have version 10.3.5 on Big Sur.
I tried UPPER("foo") and it displays FOO. So this gives me confidence that I know how to invoke functions.
results in
However then I actually wanted to use the find function. I try FIND("e", "where on earth") which is literally copied and pasted from the function help. All it does is give me an error.
results in
As said, all it gives me for details is this:
For reference the function help says in the example section
Examples
=FIND("e", "where on earth") returns 3 (“e” is the third character in the string “where on earth”).
Surely it must be something very basic I'm missing. When I copy and paste the same function in, say, Google Sheets, it's working perfectly.
Best Answer
Try using
;as a separator between parameters instead of,.If you start typing the function name in a cell and let it autocomplete you should also be able to see which separator will work and how the function should look.
It seems that in locales with a comma as a decimal point the separator for functions is different. The same thing happens in Microsoft Excel which is why I knew to look for it.