We use formulas all the time. To calculate the total payment to be made to the vegetable vendor, to find out if we will overshoot the monthly budget when we buy the expensive T-shirt on display, or to estimate the profit that we will make by selling the

These calculations could be simple or complex, but they all use a formula or an equation to manipulate the data so as to achieve a result. These formulas are the real reason people use Excel spreadsheets. Without formulas, Excel would be little more than a simple grid-based word processor. When you use formulas, however, it becomes an extremely powerful, time-saving computing tool.

In This Chapter:

Components of an Excel Formula

All Excel formulas begin with an equal sign. For example, the following is a formula — =4*2 (* tells Excel to perform a multiplication). A formula can be composed of cell references, numeric values, functions, operators, parenthesis etc. Lets see what thi

Using Text Formulas

A text formula is a formula that returns text. Text formulas use the ampersand (&) operator to work with text strings enclosed in quotation marks.

Using Comparison Formulas

Comparison Operators compare two values and produce logical values of TRUE or FALSE.

Using Arithmetic Formulas

Arithmetic formulas are the most commonly used formulas in Excel. They combine numbers, cell addresses, and function results with mathematical operators to perform calculations.

Percentages

With the total marks for all the students added up, Sean starts calculating the percentages of marks for each.

Sum Function

The SUM () function and it's counterparts are used to generate important information from your data with minimal effort.

AutoFill

AutoFill is an interesting Excel feature that can be used to automatically fill in dates, time periods, and series of numbers. This includes numbers combined with text, such as Exam 1, Exam 2, etc. This feature saves you the trouble of typing a series of

Average Function

Having calculated the total and the percentage value of each student’s marks, Sean now wants to calculate the mean value of percentage of the students for each term. Mean is the same thing as the average.

Max and Min Functions

The MAX and MIN functions automatically find the maximum and minimum of a range of values.