Introduction to Basic Excel Functions and Formulae Excel has some very useful functions that you can use when working with formulae. This worksheet has been designed using Excel 2010 however the basic principles apply for all versions of Excel. Here is an introduction to some of the basics functions and formulae you might find useful and how to use them. Note: Each box in Excel is called a cell and each cell has a reference according to the column and row it is in e.g. the top left cell is Cell A1, below that is Cell A2 and to the right of Cell A1 is Cell B1 etc. Basic Functions Below is a table of some of the functions you can use when creating your own formulae and functions. Note: Don t forget that all functions need to begin with an = symbol otherwise Excel will assume you are just typing text. Function Key(s)/Input Description Add + Adds numbers together. Subtract - Subtracts numbers away. Multiply * Multiplies numbers together. Divide / Divides numbers from each other. Power ^ Produces the power of something e.g. 2^2 is 2 2. Percentage %* Finds the percentage. e.g. 5% of 10 would be =5%*10. You can also turn a decimal fraction into a percentage by highlighting the cell and click the % button under the Home tab. Square Root sqrt(number) Produces the square root of a number. n th Root ^(1/n) Finds the n th root of a number. e.g. 365 th root is ^(1/365) 1. Sum Type =sum(cell:cell) OR =sum(cell,cell,cell ) This function allows you to add up all the numbers in a given range. In the example below, a company wants to find out how much of a product they have sold over a year. To do this, we simply type =sum(b2:b13) into cell B14 and press enter. This adds up all of the quantities over the year and tells us how much the company have sold - 417 units. 2. Product Type: =product(cell:cell) OR =cell*cell This function allows you to multiply two numbers, or a group of numbers, together. In the example below, we can work out how much income the company has made by multiplying the quantity by the price. We put our formula, =product(b2:c2) in cell D2 to find the income for January. In cell D3, we
use =product(b3:c3) which gives us the income for February and so on. We can then use the Sum function to find out how much money the company has made over the year which is 770.25. 3. IF Type: =IF(argument, output if true, output if false ) The IF function determines whether an argument is true or false. For example, a company may be interested in seeing whether selling a specific quantity of a product produces a profit or a loss. The IF function can be used to answer this automatically. In the example below, the company wants to know whether it made a profit or loss for each month of trading given the total expenses for that month. To do this, we input into cell F1 the formula =IF(B2*C2-E2>0, PROFIT, LOSS ). This means that if the total revenue from sales (Quantity x Selling price) less the total expenses given in cell E2 is greater than 0, we have made a profit. If it is less than 0 we have made a loss. Repeating this process for cells F3 to F13 tells us whether we have made a profit or loss for each month of the year. Note: You don t have to re-write the formula out each time. Just copy and paste cell F2 into cells F3 to F13 and Excel will automatically adjust the cells to the correct formula.
4. Average Type: =average(cell:cell) This function calculates the average (the mean) of a set of numbers. For example, a company may wish to calculate its average selling price throughout the year. We therefore put the formula =average(c2:c13) into cell C14 to calculate their average selling price for the year. The $ sign If you want to copy a formula to a lot of cells but want to keep a certain aspect the same you can use the $ sign. The $ sign keeps that particular part of a formula the same when copying across cells. Example: A company wants to find the breakeven quantity for a product that is sold at 25 a unit and costs 10 to make. The company also has fixed costs of 1050 to pay. To begin, we can lay the spreadsheet out as follows: To work out whether the company has made a profit, loss or broken even, we can use the IF function twice in column B. In Cell B2 we input: =IF((A2*$F$1)-(A2*$F$2)-$F$3>0, Profit,IF((A2*$F$1)- (A2*$F$2)-$F$3<0, Loss, Breakeven )). Note: We have to use two IF functions as we have 3 possible outcomes: Profit, Loss or Breakeven. A single IF function only allows for 2 outcomes. When we copy the formula down Column B we only want the quantity to change, not the selling price, variable cost price or the fixed cost price. The $ sign does that for us. We therefore get this output which tells us the breakeven quantity is 70 units:
Plotting Graphs, highlighting cells and the Go to function Graphs You can use Excel to plot graphs and charts. To do this, simply click on the Insert tab as shown below. This allows you to choose from different chart types like bar charts, line graphs and pie charts. Suppose we wish to produce a breakeven chart for a company. First we need to select the data we want to produce the chart from. We do this by clicking and dragging until a box appears around the data we wish to use, as shown below. We then click on the Insert tab and then select Line to bring down a drop down list of graphs we can use. Choose the graph you want to use and click on it. This will automatically then produce the graph as shown below.
You can then use the Chart Tools displayed at the top of the screen to change the colour of the line, change the axes or change the layout of the graph. Highlighting Cells Sometimes it is useful to highlight particular cells. To do this, click on the cell you wish to highlight, then click on the Home tab at the top of the screen and click on the icon that looks like a paint can being spilt: This will automatically fill the cell in black. However, if you wish to change the colour, simply click on the little down arrow next to the icon to show a range of colours that you can choose from. You can also place various lines and boxes round a cell by clicking on the icon or selecting a box from the drop down arrow next to that icon. Conditional Formatting Sometimes you may wish to highlight a cell for a particular reason. This is done through Conditional Formatting. For example, you may wish to highlight all years that make a loss in Red, all those that breakeven in Yellow and all those that make a profit in Green. To do this, click the cell(s) that you want to put this rule on. Then, click on the Home tab and then click on Conditional Formatting :
This brings down a drop-down menu which allows you to highlight that particular cell (set of cells) based on a given formula as shown below. In our example, we want to highlight all those cells that are negative (less than zero) in Red, all those cells that are positive (greater than zero) in Green, and all those cells that are equal to zero in Yellow. To do this, we click on Highlight Cells Rules and click on Greater than first to make the cell go Green when it makes a profit. This brings up a box that looks like the one below. Because a profit is made when we have a number greater than zero, we change the first box to zero. We then select Green Fill with Dark Green Text and click OK. Repeat these steps so that the cells go Red for a loss and Yellow for breakeven (How can you do this? What changes?). Note: You do not have to repeat the process for all individual cells. Simply copy the cell you have put your conditional highlighting on and select all the other cells you wish to copy to. Right click and select the Formatting paste from the menu, as below.
Once you have done this you will notice that the cells are highlighted based on the rules that you have given. If the number in the cell changes, the highlighting will change accordingly. For the example we have used, you will have a sheet that looks something like the one below. Go To function You may have to work with some very large spreadsheets in Excel and so getting around the document quickly and effectively is important. The Go to function allows you to jump to any cell in the spreadsheet without having to scroll through looking for it. Here is a step by step guide on how to do it. 1. Press the F5 key on the keyboard to bring up the Go To dialog box. 2. Type in the cell reference of the desired destination in the Reference line of the dialog box. In this case: HQ567. 3. Click on the OK button or press the ENTER key on the keyboard. 4. The black box that surrounds the active cell should jump to cell HQ567 making it the new active cell. 5. To move to another cell, repeat steps 1 to 3.