More Excel Formulas and Functions Overview Microsoft Microsoft Excel has been through many revisions. revisions. This tutorial was created using Excel 2000. Other Excel Excel versions contain similar functions, although they may dier in in oerational detail.
The Function Wizard The easiest method of accessing accessing formulas in Excel Excel is through the !unction !unction "i#ard. "i#ard. !or most formulas, formulas, this is a wor$s very well. The !unction !unction "i#ard "i#ard can be accessed though the %tandard Menu by clic$ing on the button or by going to Insert and then utili#e, you can can also Function on the &le menu. 'f you $now the function you want to utili#e, enter the function directly into the !ormula (ar.
Sample One – OverAchiever Elementary ud!et The &rst examle examle we will exlore exlore is a simle simle budget sreadsheet that that lists amounts that have been allocated to several several areas over a three)year three)year eriod. 'n this section, we will be using the *verage *verage and variations of the +ount function. function. The budgeted values are shown below. The &rst average we will will do is the average of one column, column, F" #$$%. ' want this average to be in cell &. +lic$ on cell & to ma$e it the active cell "hen you do this, you will see that the 'ell (ame ox will change to (-.
To To start the Function Wizard , clic$ on the f x button. The )aste Function window will aear. aear. *t this oint, you can either select from a function area area in the left ane, clic$ on the All area to see all available functions, or select one of the Most *ecently +sed functions from the right side ane. "hen you enter a function, Excel will try to guess the range of cells that you want to include. 'n this case, Excel guessed well. /ad there there been a blan$ in the list, the result result would not have included any cells above the blan$ cell. 'f you need to change the range of the average, you can either enter the new range manually or clic$ on the small small sreadsheet icon icon next to the cell range. range. This will allow you to highlight the range you want in the average directly directly in the sreadsheet. 'nterestingly, 'nterestingly, Excel will will also create functions functions that san several columns of data. 'f you wanted to see what the average that was budgeted for all of the areas over the three years, you could enter into the !ormula (ar ,A-E*A.E/%0123
(ested Functions 1
*lthough the !unction "i#ard wor$s well for most situations, there are times when the calculation re1uires something more comlex than the !unction "i#ard will handle. Many times, this re1uires nesting functions. One of my ersonal favorites is the IF Statement . The IF Statement contains three sections, the 4o!ical Test Must be True or !alse, the -alue i5 the 4o!ical Test is True , and the -alue i5 the 4o!ical Test is False . The '! %tatement follows the format
,IF/4o!ical6Test7-alue6I56True7-alue6I56False3 The interesting art of this is that either or both of the True or !alse outcomes can be a formula instead of a value.
Sample Two – 'ountin! Scores ets say that we have two year3s worth of 4+E scores for Total 5eading and we want to $now how many students scored above the 60th 4+E and what ercentage of those students are of the total number of students. "e need to calculate two things the number of students at or above the 60th 4+E and the total number of students. Excel has a function that is tailor)made for calculating the number of students who are at or above the 60 th 4+E, the 'O+(TIF Function . This function will count the number of scores that meet a seci&c criterion. 't ta$es the form
,'O+(TIF/*an!e7'riteria3 'n this situation, the 5ange is an entire column, column . 'n order to include the entire column, the 5ange would be listed as 0 in our formula (ote There is one caveat to using an entire column as the range7 the formula +*44OT be in the same column that you are wor$ing with, since including the calculation in the column would create a +ircular 5eference, where the formula refers to it3s own result. 'n general, +ircular 5eferences are a (ad Thing and should be avoided. 'n our case, we could write the &rst ortion of our formula as 8+O94T'!((,:;860: The second art of our formula is to count the all of the scores in +olumn (. 4ot surrisingly, there is also a function for that, the +O94T !unction. This function ta$es the form
,'O+(T/*an!e3 %o our formula would be 8+O94T((
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'n order to reach a &nal calculation, we need to now divide the number of student who are at or above the 60 th 4+E by the total number of students. This will loo$ li$e 8+O94T'!((,:;860:<+O94T(( This will formula will roduce a decimal result. 'f you want a ercentage, you can either format the cell as a ercentage or multily the result by =00 this loo$s li$e 8+O94T'!((,:;860:<+O94T((>=00 ?lease note the arentheses. @es, your high school *lgebra Order of Oerations are still with youA @ou can force grouing in Excel by using the arentheses. "ithout the additional arentheses, the calculation would be The number of scores at or above the 60th 4+E divided by =00 times the total number of scores.
A Few Excel Operators /ere is the Bshort listB of mathematical oerators used in Excel. *ll must be entered in the formula between the cells that are being calculated. C ) > < 8 8 ;8 ;
*ddition %ubtraction Multilication Division E1ual to ess than or E1ual to Freater than or E1ual to 4ot E1ual to
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