combine all cells, numbers and symbols to a sum - excel

Question

Good day,
I'm at a loss on this problem.
I have a group of cells that contain words, like apple, this word would be the value. It is separated by a symbol for completing the math. They can be changed by the user to make custom calculations.
Cell A1 is "apple", B1 is "+", cell C1 is "apple", cell D1 is "*", cell E1 is "apple", call F1 is "=" and cell G1 is the suggested total, in this case would be "6".
It would be posted as | apple | + | apple | * | apple | = | 6 |
The legend holds the value for the word, so if you enter 2 in the legend, apple would be 2.
The logic would determine that the formula would be 2+2*2= if written in excel, I would like to combine all the cells and calculate this.
I tried using =sum, sumproduct, concate and the like to no avail.
Any head way I did make, I ended up getting BEDMAS wrong as it calculated it as 2+2=4*2=8, instead of the correct 2*2=4+2=6.
Anyone know of a way to combine these cells and properly sum the values to the correct total?
Thank you for your time!

Answer 1

Go to the Name manager and create named range Eval, into Refers to field add formula:
=EVALUATE(CONCATENATE(VLOOKUP(Sheet1!A1,Sheet1!$A$3:$B$5,2,0),Sheet1!B1,VLOOKUP(Sheet1!C1,Sheet1!$A$3:$B$5,2,0),Sheet1!D1,VLOOKUP(Sheet1!E1,Sheet1!$A$3:$B$5,2,0)))
In range A3:B5 I have legend.
Change references as you need. Then in cell G1 write formula =Eval.
Sample:

Answer 2

This is a UDF based solution. Its advantage is that it's more versatile and by far easier to maintain if you learn its elements of code. The disadvantage is in that you do have to learn the elements of code and you have an xlsm macro-enabled workbook which isn't welcome everywhere.
The setup is simple. I created a table with columns Item and Value. I placed it on another sheet than the task. In fact, you could make the sheet with the table VeryHidden so that the user can't look at it without access to the VBA project, which you can password protect. I called the table Legend. The item columns has names like apple, pear, orange. The Value column has the numeric values associated with each name.
Note that, since this is a VBA project, the entire list can be transferred to VBA leaving no trace on the sheet. You could have a function to display the value of each item as the user clicks on it and have it disappear as he clicks elsewhere.
Next I created a data validation drop-down in A1 with the List defined as =INDIRECT("Legend[Item]"). Copy this cell to C1 and E1.
Then I created another Data Validation drop-down in B1 with the list as +,-,*,/. This drop-down must be copied to D1.
Now the code below goes into a standard code module. Find the way to create it because it isn't any of those Excel sets up automatically. It's default name would be Module1. Paste the code there.
Function Evalue(Definition As Range) As Double
Dim Task As String
Dim Fact(2) As Double
Dim C As Long
Dim i As Long
With Definition
For C = 1 To 5 Step 2
On Error Resume Next
Fact(i) = Application.VLookup(.Cells(C).Value, Range("Legend"), 2, False)
i = i + 1
Next C
Task = "(" & Fact(0) & .Cells(2).Value _
& Fact(1) & ")" & .Cells(4).Value _
& Fact(2)
End With
Evalue = Evaluate(Task)
End Function
Now you are ready for testing. Call the function from the worksheet with a call like
=Evalue(A1:E1). You can use it in comparisons like =IF(G6 = Evalue(A1:E1), "Baravo!", "Try again"). As you change any of the components the cell with the function will change.
Remember to use absolute addressing if you copy formulas containing the range. If you need to get a result in VBA while testing, use this sub to call the function.
Private Sub TestEvalue()
Debug.Print Evalue(Range("A1:E1"))
End Sub

Answer 3

My Sheet
Here is what I have.
In cells M - U, i count all the instances of the word from cells E, G and I from the legend.
=SUMPRODUCT((LEN(E3)-LEN(SUBSTITUTE(E3,$B$3,"")))/LEN($B$3))
In cells W - AE, I multiply the instances with the value to give me a total each time the word appears.
=SUM(M3*$C$3)
In cell E8 - I8, i add the three possible values together.
=SUM(W3:Y3) so each worded cell is now a number.
I'd like to take the cells E8 - I8 to make a calculation in k8 and so on.
So, each cell is put together to make an
=SUM(E8:I8)
statement, which all works except E11 - I11 which equates to 26 instead of 43.