Initial 0 value on cell before displaying actual calculated formula value on Excel Online

[hnyrxs2]

Provide required information needed to triage your issue

Excel online and web have different behavior. In excel online, when recalculation formula that waits for external resources or async methods it would display #BUSY then will show value '0' very briefly before showing the actual calculated results wherein desktop, value 0 is never shown after #BUSY

Your Environment

• Platform [PC desktop, Mac, iOS, Office on the web]: Office on Web
• Host [Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.]: Excel
• Office version number: Build# 16.0.19905.42306
• Operating System: Windows
• Browser (if using Office on the web): Edge and Chrome

Expected behavior

When calculating formula that waits for asynchronous or external resources, #BUSY is shown on the cell before the actual value

Current behavior

On the web, when calculating the formula, it would show these values on cell
#BUSY > 0 > actual calculated value

Steps to reproduce

1. Open excel online
2. Create formula on cell E1:E4 that waits from external resources, e.g:
   '=STOCKHISTORY("MSFT",TODAY()-340,TODAY())
   '=STOCKHISTORY("MSFT",TODAY()-350,TODAY())
   '=STOCKHISTORY("MSFT",TODAY()-370,TODAY())
   '=STOCKHISTORY("MSFT",TODAY()-400,TODAY())
3. On cell A1, paste the formula from cell E1 without the apostrophe before the = sign
4. Formula would calculate, #BUSY would be displayed then 0, before the actual formula results
5. do the same on step 2 but copy the formula from cell E2
6. Paste the formula on cell A1, we would see the same results in step 3.
7. Do the same on desktop
8. It would display #BUSY then the actual formula results, no 0 value would be visible on cell A1

Live example

Could not attach screen recording, please see this uploaded screen recordings for the actual bahavior on gdrive
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_SyIcHgj4xiQjaAPR5JU5eUkv7P-lJn1?usp=drive_link

Context

This is used in automated testing with playwright on excel online, different behavior on desktop and online produces failing tests.

[github-actions]

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[saaksshi-microsoft]

Hi @hnyrxs2,
I see that you added live example section, but there is no link added to either WEB or Desktop. can you please share so we can repro it with your dataset.

[hnyrxs2]

Hello @saaksshi-microsoft i could not attach recordings in here so i updaloaded in gdrive, please let me know if you could not access it https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1_SyIcHgj4xiQjaAPR5JU5eUkv7P-lJn1?usp=sharing

[4tti]

@saaksshi-microsoft not sure I understand.
What exactly do you need? The steps are clear....
Edit: live example shows recording, there is no publicly accessible app from our side. You need to use your own excel with native excel function as described by @hnyrxs2

[saaksshi-microsoft]

@hnyrxs2 thank you for the recordings, I'm able to download it now.
@4tti I just wanted the live demo, I'm able to see it now.