title: How can I produce a regular Excel formula as the result of a query?
body: <p>I have a large and complicated Excel query, which works as desired.</p>
  
  <p>However, I'm implementing some real-time data-validation features (i.e. not requiring a data refresh), and I need to have a regular excel formula in one of the columns of my query results.</p>
  
  <p>This formula would perform a real-time data comparison using other sheets in the workbook, intentionally independent from the query itself.</p>
  
  <p>Can I add a custom column with no value?<br>
  I assume the values <code>null</code> or <code>""</code> would overwrite any pre-existing data, so I couldn't just enter the excel formula into the results table after running the query (the formula wouldn't persist between refreshes).</p>
  
  <p>For testing, I tried adding a custom column with the value <code>"=5+2"</code>, just to see how it would behave.</p>
  
  <pre><code>let
      Source = Excel.CurrentWorkbook(){[Name="tblInvoicesCategorized"]}[Content],
  
      /* ... perform numerous query actions ... */
  
      // Use "=5+2" as a test formula
      #"Added Custom13" = Table.AddColumn(#"Added Custom12", "Stale Data", each "=5+2"),
  
      /* ... perform numerous query actions ... */
  
  in
      #"Changed Type"
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The query did output the formula as the value of the cells in the column, but Excel did not automatically execute the formulas.<br>
  I still had to manually place the cursor into a cell and press enter, to get it to execute the formula.</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://i.stack.imgur.com/gKO5Q.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.stack.imgur.com/gKO5Q.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>
  
  <p>Manual entry of the formula, or even manual execution of a macro, is undesirable for this workbook.</p>
  
  <p>Is there a way for me to have a regular formula in this query column, and have it automatically persist between data refreshes?</p>