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What Is Excel Formula

The document discusses Microsoft Excel formulas. It explains that formulas in Excel perform calculations on cell values and return results, including errors. It provides examples of common formulas like SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, and IF to add, find averages, count cells, and check conditions. The document also summarizes 10 important Excel formulas for mathematical, text, date/time operations and lookups.

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Mehedi Nayeem
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
50 views

What Is Excel Formula

The document discusses Microsoft Excel formulas. It explains that formulas in Excel perform calculations on cell values and return results, including errors. It provides examples of common formulas like SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, and IF to add, find averages, count cells, and check conditions. The document also summarizes 10 important Excel formulas for mathematical, text, date/time operations and lookups.

Uploaded by

Mehedi Nayeem
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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What is Excel Formula?

In Microsoft Excel, a formula is an expression that operates on values in a range of cells. These
formulas return a result, even when it is an error. Excel formulas enable you to perform calculations
such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. In addition to these, you can find out
averages and calculate percentages in excel for a range of cells, manipulate date and time values, and
do a lot more.

Excel Formulas and Functions


There are plenty of Excel formulas and functions depending on what kind of operation you want to
perform on the dataset. We will look into the formulas and functions on mathematical operations,
character-text functions, data and time, sumif-countif, and few lookup functions.

Let’s now look at the top 10 Excel formulas you must know.We have categorized 10 Excel formulas
based on their operations. Let’s start with the first Excel formula on our list.

1. SUM
The SUM() function, as the name suggests, gives the total of the selected range of cell values. It
performs the mathematical operation which is addition. Here’s an example of it below:
Sum "=SUM(C2:C4)"

Fig: Sum function in Excel

As you can see above, to find the total amount of sales for every unit, we had to simply type in the
function “=SUM(C2:C4)”. This automatically adds up 300, 385, and 480. The result is stored in C5.

2. AVERAGE
The AVERAGE() function focuses on calculating the average of the selected range of cell values. As
seen from the below example, to find the avg of the total sales, you have to simply type in:
AVERAGE =AVERAGE(C2, C3, C4)
Fig: Average function in Excel

It automatically calculates the average, and you can store the result in your desired location.

3. COUNT
The function COUNT() counts the total number of cells in a range that contains a number. It does not
include the cell, which is blank, and the ones that hold data in any other format apart from numeric.
COUNT =COUNT(C1:C4)

Fig: Microsoft Excel Function – Count

As seen above, here, we are counting from C1 to C4, ideally four cells. But since the COUNT
function takes only the cells with numerical values into consideration, the answer is 3 as the cell
containing “Total Sales” is omitted here.
If you are required to count all the cells with numerical values, text, and any other data format, you
must use the function ‘COUNTA()’. However, COUNTA() does not count any blank cells.
To count the number of blank cells present in a range of cells, COUNTBLANK() is used.

4. SUBTOTAL
Moving ahead, let’s now understand how the subtotal function works. The SUBTOTAL() function
returns the subtotal in a database. Depending on what you want, you can select either average, count,
sum, min, max, min, and others. Let’s have a look at two such examples.

Fig: Subtotal function in Excel


In the example above, we have performed the subtotal calculation on cells ranging from A2 to A4. As
you can see, the function used is
SUBTOTAL =SUBTOTAL(1, A2: A4)
In the subtotal list “1” refers to average. Hence, the above function will give the average of A2: A4
and the answer to it is 11, which is stored in C5. Similarly,
“=SUBTOTAL(4, A2: A4)”
This selects the cell with the maximum value from A2 to A4, which is 12. Incorporating “4” in the
function provides the maximum result.

Fig: Count function in Excel

5. MODULUS
The MOD() function works on returning the remainder when a particular number is divided by a
divisor. Let’s now have a look at the examples below for better understanding.
• In the first example, we have divided 10 by 3. The remainder is calculated using the function
MODULUS =MOD(A2,3)
• The result is stored in B2. We can also directly type “=MOD(10,3)” as it will give the same
answer.

Fig: Modulus function in Excel


• Similarly, here, we have divided 12 by 4. The remainder is 0 is, which is stored in B3.

Fig: Modulus function in Excel

6. POWER
The function “Power()” returns the result of a number raised to a certain power. Let’s have a look at
the examples shown below:

Fig: Power function in Excel


As you can see above, to find the power of 10 stored in A2 raised to 3, we have to type:
Power =POWER (A2,3)

This is how power function works in Excel.

7. CEILING
Next, we have the ceiling function. The CEILING() function rounds a number up to its nearest
multiple of significance.

Fig: Ceiling function in Excel


The nearest highest multiple of 5 for 35.316 is 40.

8. FLOOR
Contrary to the Ceiling function, the floor function rounds a number down to the nearest multiple of
significance.

Fig: Floor function in Excel


The nearest lowest multiple of 5 for 35.316 is 35.

9. IF Formula
The IF() function checks a given condition and returns a particular value if it is TRUE. It will return
another value if the condition is FALSE.
In the below example, we want to check if the value in cell A2 is greater than 5. If it’s greater than 5,
the function will return “Yes 4 is greater”, else it will return “No”.

Fig: If function in Excel


In this case, it will return ‘No’ since 4 is not greater than 5.
‘IFERROR’ is another function that is popularly used. This function returns a value if an expression
evaluates to an error, or else it will return the value of the expression.
Suppose you want to divide 10 by 0. This is an invalid expression, as you can’t divide a number by
zero. It will result in an error.

The above function will return “Cannot divide”.

10. UPPER, LOWER, PROPER


The UPPER() function converts any text string to uppercase. In contrast, the LOWER() function
converts any text string to lowercase. The PROPER() function converts any text string to proper case,
i.e., the first letter in each word will be in uppercase, and all the other will be in lowercase.
Let’s understand this better with the following examples:
• Here, we have converted the text in A6 to a full uppercase one in A7.

Fig: Upper function in Excel


• Now, we have converted the text in A6 to a full lowercase one, as seen in A7.

Fig: Lower function in Excel


• Finally, we have converted the improper text in A6 to a clean and proper format in A7.

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