Learn Excel

Learn Excel In order to create an Excel formula, begin by typing an equal sign: this distinguishes it from other types of data. A formula consists of groups of expressions. There are three key elements in these expressions: arithmetic operators, such as add and subtract; functions; and references to worksheet.

To create a formula which returns the total of two of the numbers in a spreadsheet (say 24 and 12), you simply type "=24 12". When you press the Enter key, you would get the correct result. However, the formula would not be linked to the two cells containing the numbers. If the entry in either of the cells were to change, the formula would still give the old result.

Obviously, the solution is to ensure that our formula holds a reference to the two cells in question. The simplest way of doing this is to click on the first cell having typed "=". Excel then automatically creates a reference to that cell. Next type the plus sign and click on the second cell. Excel creates a reference to the second cell and we then confirm the formula either by clicking on the Enter button (on the left of the formula bar) or pressing the Enter key on the keyboard.

Once your formula contains a reference to these two cells, any time the contents of the cells change, the result produced by formula will be updated.

If this was the only way of performing calculations in Excel, formulas would very quickly become extremely long and very complex. To avoid this, we can use Excel's built-in functions. Functions perform complex mathematical calculations without us having to worry about how the result is arrived at.

For example, imagine that we wanted to total the contents of a hundred different cells. If we relied purely on the "+" sign, we would end up creating a formula with a hundred different arguments; in other words, a reference to each of the cells containing the numbers. Instead, we can use the SUM function.

To include a function in a formula, type the equal sign followed by the name of the function. Next, type open brackets followed by the arguments of the function. The term arguments refers to the values required by a function in order to return a result. In the case of the SUM function, all we need to specify are the cell addresses of the numbers we want to total. We can do this automatically by clicking or dragging across each of the cells or ranges that contain
those numbers.

Having entered references to all the cells containing numbers that we want to total, press the Enter key to add the formula to the worksheet. You don't even need to put in the closing parentheses. Excel will close them automatically.