Return sum of fraction ie 38/30

When you enter 30/38 in a cell Excel has to decide whether this is a number, a formula or text. Excel does this by elimination.

1. It isn't a number because it contains a non-numeric character.
2. It isn't a formula because all formulas start with an equal sign (=) which tells Excel to evaluate the formula that follows the sign.
3. Therefore it is text.

Of course, in your case, it isn't text. 30/38 is a formula but you didn't enter the telltale leading sign. That, basically, answers your question.

You can enter =Sheet1!A1 in a cell and get exactly "30/38", meaning the same text that A1 contains. The SUM() function converts text to 0. This is, if your range includes numbers and text, the SUM() function can still draw a correct total of all numbers. But beware: =SUM("1") equals zero because "1" is text. =SUM(1,2,"3") equals 3, not be cause "3" is the last number but because "3" isn't a number.

=Sheet1!A1 will return the value found in the referenced cell. If the referenced cell contains a formula, like =30/38, then the returned value will be the evaluation of that formula, in this case 0.789473684210526. However, your cell on Sheet2 may still show 0. The reason for that would be the cell format. If the cell format displays only integers the display will be 0, same as if you entered =INT(Sheet1!A1). The difference between the two is that the cell value on Sheet2 will actually be 0 if you entered the INT() function but it will still be 0.789473684210526 if the display was tempered with. This makes a difference when you use the cell value for onward calculations.