EVALUATE is available in VBA in all current versions
You can include it in you VBA code, or wrap it into a simple UDF to make it available as a worksheet function
`Function ev(r As Range) As Variant
ev = Evaluate(r.Value)
End Function
It basically treats the value of the passed parameter as an Excel formula, same as if it were entered in a cell
`"11+5"` and `"=11+5"` will produce the same result
