POWER Function (OpenOffice Calc)
The POWER function in OpenOffice Calc raises a number to a specified exponent. Learn syntax, examples, exponent rules, common errors, and best practices.
Compatibility
▾| Excel | ✔ |
| Gnumeric | ✔ |
| Google_sheets | ✔ |
| Libreoffice | ✔ |
| Numbers | ✔ |
| Onlyoffice | ✔ |
| Openoffice | ✔ |
| Wps | ✔ |
| Zoho | ✔ |
What the POWER Function Does ▾
- Raises a number to an exponent
- Supports positive, negative, and fractional exponents
- Works with integers, decimals, and dates
- Useful for growth modeling, physics, engineering, and compounding
- Works across sheets
POWER is ideal when you need exponential or root‑based calculations.
Syntax ▾
POWER(number; exponent)
Arguments:
- number — The base value
- exponent — The power to raise the base to
POWER(number; 0.5) is equivalent to a square root.POWER(number; -1) is equivalent to a reciprocal.
Basic Examples ▾
Square a number
=POWER(5; 2)
Result: 25
Cube a number
=POWER(3; 3)
Result: 27
Raise a number to a fractional power
=POWER(16; 0.5)
Result: 4
Raise a number to a negative power
=POWER(10; -1)
Result: 0.1
Use cell references
=POWER(A1; B1)
Advanced Examples ▾
Compound interest formula
=Principal * POWER(1 + Rate; Years)
Example:
=1000 * POWER(1.05; 10)
Exponential growth
=POWER(A1; 1.2)
Exponential decay
=POWER(A1; -0.3)
nth root of a number
=POWER(A1; 1/3)
Cube root.
POWER across sheets
=POWER(Sheet1.A1; 2)
POWER with arrays
Square each value:
=POWER(A1:A10; 2)
Confirm with Ctrl+Shift+Enter.
POWER for physics formulas
Kinetic energy:
=0.5 * m * POWER(v; 2)
POWER for engineering scaling
=POWER(A1; 0.75)
Common Errors and Fixes ▾
POWER returns Err:502 (Invalid argument)
Occurs when:
- Base is negative and exponent is fractional
- Exponent is text
- Base is text
- A malformed reference is used
POWER returns Err:503 (Numeric overflow)
Occurs when:
- Result is too large for Calc to represent
- Exponent is extremely high
POWER returns Err:508 (Missing parenthesis)
Usually caused by:
- Missing
) - Using commas instead of semicolons
POWER returns unexpected results
Possible causes:
- Fractional exponents misunderstood
- Negative exponents misunderstood
- Text numbers not converted to numeric
Best Practices ▾
- Use POWER for exponential and root calculations
- Use SQRT for readability when exponent = 0.5
- Use EXP and LN for natural exponential modeling
- Convert imported text numbers to real numbers
- Use named ranges for cleaner formulas
- Avoid extremely large exponents to prevent overflow
POWER(x; y) is identical to using the caret operator:x ^ yUse whichever improves readability.