Introduction to

Excel
Therese Charmaine Ybañez

1
Worksheet
Basics

2
 3

Worksheets
• Excel’s main
screen is called a
“worksheet”.

• Each worksheet is
comprised of many
boxes, called
“cells”.
 4

Organize Information
• You can organize
information by
typing a single
piece of data into
each cell. (see next
slides)
How to Enter Information

5
 6

Selecting a Cell
• “Select” a cell
by clicking on it
once (don’t
double click).

• You can move

from cell to cell
with the arrow
keys or by
pressing the
“Enter” key.
 7

Entering Information / The Formula Bar

• To enter information in a
cell, just start typing.

• When you are done

either
– Press the Enter Key
– Press an arrow key
– Click on the “check
button” (only visible
when entering data into
a cell)

• The information in the

selected cell is also
displayed in the
“formula bar” above the
worksheet.
 8

Double Click to Modify a Cell

• To modify the contents
of a cell double click
on the cell.
• Then use the right, left
arrow keys and the
Insert and Delete keys
to modify the data. Double click to
• When you are done: change “hi there” to
“hello there”
– Press the Enter key
or
– Click on the check box.
Names of Rows, Columns and
Cells

9
 10

Column Names (letters) & Row Names (numbers)

• The columns of
the worksheet
are named with
letters
• The rows are
named with Selected
Cell
numbers
 11

Cell Names (ex. B4)

Name Selected
• The name of a cell is a combination Box Cell
of the Letter Of The Column that
the cell is in followed by the
Number Of The Row that the cell is
in.

• Example: the selected cell in the

picture is named B4 (NOT 4B)

• Excel automatically shows the the

name of the currently selected cell
in the “name box” (located above
the worksheet).

• The letter must come first (i.e. B4,

NOT 4B) and there may NOT be any
spaces between the letter and the
number.

• We will learn later why it is

important to understand how to name
cells.
Longggggggg Data

12
 13

Information that is “too wide” for a cell

• The word “Name” is in cell
A5
• The words “Hours Worked”
are in cell B5 (NOT in cell
C5). However, since the
information is too wide for
cell B5, it looks like it
“Hours
extends into cell C5. Worked” is
• You can determine that the in cell B5
(look at
information is really only IN formula bar)
cell B5 by selecting cell B5
and looking at the formula
bar and then selecting cell
C5 and looking at the “Hours
Worked” is
formula bar. NOT in cell
C5 (formula
bar is empty)
 14

Information that is “Chopped Off”

• If there is information • You can see the
in the cell to the right, complete data by
then the original cell selecting the cell and
still contains all of the looking in the
data, but the data formula bar.
appears to be
“chopped off”.
Change the Width of a Column or
the Height of a Row

15
 16

Make a column wider Drag column

separator to the
right
• To make Column B wider,
point the cursor to the
column separator between
columns B and column C.
• The cursor changes to a
“Double headed arrow”.
• Now, click the left mouse
button and without letting
go of the button, drag the
separator to the right to
make the column wider (or
to the left to make the column
narrower).
Column is now wider
 17

Getting the Exact Width

• To get the “exact” width, Double click here
double click on the
separator instead of
dragging it.

Column is now EXACTLY the correct width

 18

Resizing a Row
• Make a row
taller or
shorter by
dragging
the
separator
between the
rows.

Row is now
• Click and taller
drag here to
resize row
5.
 19

Putting an “Enter” inside a cell

Step 1: Originally
“Hours Worked”
• To add a new line is on one line.
inside a cell
– Double click inside
the cell where you
Step 2: Double click
want the new line.
to edit cell and then
– Press Ctrl-Enter press Ctrl-Enter
(i.e. hold down the
Ctrl key and press
Enter while still
holding down
Ctrl).
– When you are done Step 3: Press Enter
(without Ctrl) to
editing, press Enter
accept the changes.
(without holding
down Ctrl) to
accept the changes.
 Basic Formatting
(e.g. bold, colors, fonts, etc)

20
 21

Formatting Cells
• Select one or more cells and then click on any of the formatting buttons (see
below) to change the formatting of the selected cells.
• Formatting buttons: show fewer decimal points (ex.
10.507 is displayed as 10.51)
These change the way show more decimal points (ex.
numbers are displayed 10.507 is displayed as 10.5070)
in cells. (these don’t
affect words). indent within cell
put border around cell(s)
center color of cell
font font color of
name size left justify right justify text in cell

bold center & merge

cells remove indent
italics (will explain later) show with commas (e.g.
click on underline 12345 becomes 12,345) click on
downward downward
pointing arrows show as percent (ex.
pointing arrows
for other font 0.5 becomes 50%)
for other colors
names and show as currency and border
sizes (ex. 1000.507 becomes $1000.50) styles
 22

Example – unformatted worksheet

• Unformatted worksheet – see next slide for formatting.
 23

Example –making cells bold

• Click on cell A1 and drag to cell A3.
• Then press the Bold button to make cells A1,A2,A3 bold.
• You could also press the font or background color buttons to change the color
or apply any other formatting you like (this is not shown below).
 24
Other Ways of Selecting More Than One
Cell
• To select a large range of cells, click on the upper
left cell in the range. Then hold the shift key and
click on the lower right cell in the range.
• You can select different “non-contiguous” areas of
cells by holding down the Ctrl key while clicking
and dragging.
 25

Selecting Non-Contiguous Ranges

• Click and
drag to
select the
first
range.

• Ctrl-click
and drag
(This cell is also selected
to select even though it appears
white).
additional
ranges
 26
Selecting entire Rows, entire Columns or
all cells on the worksheet.
• To select an entire column, click on the letter for
the column header. To select several columns,
click on the header for the first column and drag to
the right.
• To select an entire row, click on the number for
the row header. To select several rows, click on the
header for the first row and drag down.
• To select all of the cells on the spreadsheet, click
on the upper left hand corner of the spreadsheet
(where the column headers meet the row headers)
 27

Select Entire Columns/Rows/Worksheet

To select ENTIRE COLUMN B To select ENTIRE ROW 2
click on “B” column header click on “2” row header

Click Click

To select ROWS 2,3 and 5,6,7

To select COLUMNS B,C,D – click on “2” row header, drag down,
– then Ctrl-Click on “5” row header and drag down
click on “B” column header and drag to right

drag Click and drag down

Click
then Ctrl-Click
and drag down

To select COLUMNS B,C and F,G,H

– click on “B” column header, drag to right, To select ENTIRE WORKSHEET
– then Ctrl-Click on “F” column header and drag right click on select worksheet button
(in corner between “1” and “A” buttons)
Ctrl-
Click
drag Click drag Click
 28

Example - continued
• Step 1: Click on
row header for
row 5

• Step 2:
Ctrl-click on
row-header for
row 11

• Step 3: Press
Bold button or
type ctrl-b

• Note: After
being “bolded”,
the word
“Employee” is
now too wide
for the column,
so make the
column wider if
necessary (this
step is not
shown).
More Advanced Formatting

29
 30

Format Cells
• Using the formatting buttons only
give you a limited amount of
formatting ability.
• For more formatting ability, select
one or more cells and right click on
the selection. Then choose “format
cells” from the popup menu.
• Choose options from the Number,
Alignment, Font, Border and
Patterns tabs and press OK to
change the way your information
looks on the screen.
• The Protection tab is used to lock
cells so that their contents can’t be
modified.
• We will not go into the details of
using the format cells dialog box at
this time but you should be able to
figure out most of it by yourself.
 31
Formatting changes how things LOOK,
not how they WORK.
• NOTE: you will probably not understand this slide
until after you learn about Excel Formulas.
Formulas are covered later in this presentation.
• When you change the format of a cell, Excel still
“remembers” the original value.
• Excel will use the un-formatted value when
calculating formula values.
• Example: if you change numbers to appear with
fewer decimal points the original number with all
of its decimal points are used in calculations.
 Formulas

The bread and butter of Excel

32
 33

Excel Formulas
• You must have an equals sign ( = ) as the first
character in a cell that contains a formula.
• The = sign tells excel that the contents of the cell
is a formula
• Without the = sign, the formula will not calculate
anything. It will simply display the text of the
formula.
 34

Formulas - correct

formula with = sign After pressing ENTER

 35

Missing = sign

Missing = sign! After pressing ENTER

Before pressing enter (no change - not a function)
 36

Types of operations
• You can use any of the following operations in a
formula:
operation symbol example
addition: + =a1+3
subtraction: - =100-b3
multiplication: * =a1*b1
division: / =d1/100
exponentiation ^ =a2^2
negation - =-a2+3
(same symbol as subraction)
 37

Explicit (literal) values and cell references

• You can use both explicit values and cell
references in a formula
• An explicit value is also called a literal value

– Formula with only cell references: =a1*b1

– Formula with only literal values: =100/27

– Formula with both cell references and literal values:

=a1/100
Errors in Formulas

38
 39

Common Errors
• The following are some errors that may appear in a spreadsheet (there are others too).

– #######
• Cell is too narrow to display the results of the formula. To fix this simply make the column wider and
the “real” value will be displayed instead of the ###### signs. Note that even when the ###### signs are
being displayed, Excel still uses the “real” value to calculate formulas that reference this cell.

– #NAME?
• You used a cell reference in the formula that is not formed correctly (e.g. =BB+10 instead of =B3+10)

– #VALUE!
• Usually the result of trying to do math with a textual value. Example: =A1*3 where A1 contains the
word “hello”

– #DIV/0!
• Trying to divide by zero. Example: =3/A1 where A1 contains 0 (zero)

– Circular Reference
• Using a formula that contains a reference to the cell that the formula “lives in”. Example: putting the
formula =A1+1 in cell A1 or putting the formula =SUM(A1:B2) in any of the cells A1, B1, A2, B2
Order of Operations

40
 41

Complex formulas
• You can use several operations in one function
• You can group those operations with parentheses

• Examples

=3*2+1

=c1*(a1+b1)

=(100*a2-10)+(200*b3-20)+30

=(3+2*(50/b3+3)/7)*(3+b7)
 42

Order of operations
• When using several operations in one formula,
Excel follows the order of operations for math.
– first: all parentheses - innermost first
– second: exponents (^)
– third: all multiplication (*) and division (/). Do
these starting with the leftmost * or /
and work to the right.
– fourth: all addition (+) and subtraction (-). Do
these starting with the leftmost + or -
and work to the right.
 43

Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally

• The sentence "Please excuse my dear aunt Sally" is a
popular mneumonic to remember the order of operations:

Menumonic Meaning
– Please parentheses

– Excuse exponents

– My Dear mulitplication and division

(going left to right)

– Aunt Sally addition and subtraction

(going left to right)
 44

Order of operations
• The value of

3+2*5

is

13

NOT 25!
 45

Order of operations
3 + (100 - 20) / 10 - 6 * 2 / 4 + 9

3 + 80 / 10 - 6 * 2 / 4 + 9

3+ 8 - 6 * 2 / 4 + 9

3 + 8 - 12 / 4 + 9

3+8 - 3 + 9

11 - 3 + 9

8+9

answer: 17
 46

Cntrl-`
• To see the formulas in the worksheet
– Press the Cntrl key at the same time as you press the `
key (i.e. Cntrl-`)
– Press Cntrl-` again to see the values
 47

Functions
 48

What is a function?
• A function is a "named operation"
• Functions have
– a name
– parentheses
– parameters/arguments inside the parentheses
• The words parameter and argument mean the same thing
• you can have many parameters for one function separated
with commas (,)
• The number of parameters is one more than the number of
commas.
 49

The SUM function

• Examples

Function Result
=SUM(1,2,3,4,5) 15

=SUM(a1,b1,c1) a1+b1+c1

=SUM(9,a1,b2,5,c1) 9+a1+b2+5+c1
 50

Terminology
SUM(1,2,3,4,5)
– The name of the function is "SUM"

– The parameters or arguments to this function are

1,2,3,4 and 5

– The entire thing, i.e. SUM(1,2,3,4,5), is a function call

– The value of this function call is 15.

Another way to say this is that this function call
returns 15.
Ranges (e.g. a1:c3)

51
 52

Ranges
• A rectangular box of cells is called a “range”.
• The name of a range is
– the name of the upper left cell of the range
– Followed by a colon :
– Followed by the lower right cell of the range
• Example: A1:B2 is shorthand for A1,A2,B1,B2
– See next slide for more examples

A1:B2
 53

Examples of Range Names

• Examples
C3:E10

B2:B5

B3:E3
 54

Using a range as a parameter

• Ranges can be specified as a parameters to a function call.
• Both of the following function calls produce the same
result as =a1+b1+c1+a2+b2+c2+a3+b3+c3+a4+b4+c4
however the 2nd version uses a range and is much shorter.

without a range
=SUM(a1,b1,c1,a2,b2,c2,a3,b3,c3,a4,b4,c4)

with a range
=SUM(a1:c4)
 55

Function calls with multiple parameters

• You can include multiple ranges and cells as parameters

• Example: the following function call has 3 parameters.

There are two ranges (a1:b2 and c4:c7), one number (100)
and one cell reference (d3)

=SUM(a1:b2,100,c4:c7,d3)

Is the same as:

=SUM(a1,a2,b1,b2,100,c4,c5,c6,c7,d3)
Other Functions

56
 57

Other functions
• Click the function button to see the available
functions:
Function buton
brings up the
function dialog box
(see next slide)
Warning: this slide was created using 58
Excel 2000. The dialog box in later
versions of Excel looks a little different,
but it has the same functionality.
Function dialog box
categories Functions for the selected category
(i.e. groups of functions)

Description
of currently
selected
function
 59

Function Editor
• Double click on the function name to get a dialog
box that helps you enter values for the parameters
of the function.
(see next slide)
 60

Function Editor
Put values for the parameters in When you press OK, this will create
the edit boxes. the function call:
AVERAGE(2,a1:c2,f13)
 61

Example
• AVERAGE

formula that contains a function value

=AVERAGE(2,4,10,4) 5
=AVERAGE(a1,f32) (a1+f32) / 2
=AVERAGE(a1:c1) (a1+b1+c1) / 3
=AVERAGE(a1:c1,10) (a1+b1+c1+10) / 4
 62

Combining Functions and other values

in a single formula
 63

Functions and other values

• You can combine functions, cell references and
literal values to make a complex Excel formula
• Examples
=3 + b23 * SUM(d20:g20)
=SUM(a1,100) * AVERAGE(d10:j10)
=100 / ( AVERAGE(b2,c2,d30) + AVERAGE(f1:f20) )
 64

Other Types of Cell References

References to entire ROWs
References to entire COLUMNs
References to cells or ranges on other worksheets (i.e. tabs)
 65

Entire Rows (e.g. 2:2 or 2:4)

• A cell reference of the form <rowName>:<rowName> refers to the
range of all the cells for those rows.

• Example:
– The reference, 2:2, refers to all of the cells on the 2nd row.
– The following formula adds up all of the values on the 2nd and 4th rows of the
spreadsheet:

=sum(2:2,4:4)

• Another Example:
– The reference, 2:4, refers to all of the cells on the 2nd , 3rd and 4th rows,.
– The following formula adds up all of the values on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th , 10th, 11th ,
12th, 13th, 14th and 15th rows of the spreadsheet:

=sum(2:4,10:15)
 66

Entire Columns (e.g. B:B or B:D)

• A cell reference of the form <colName>:<colName> refers to the
range of all the cells for those columns.

• Example:
– The reference, B:B, refers to all of the cells in the 2nd column.
– The following formula adds up all of the values in the 2nd and 4th columns of
the spreadsheet:

=sum(B:B,D:D)

• Another Example:
– The reference, B:D, refers to all of the cells in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th columns.
– The following formula adds up all of the values in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 6th and 7th
columns of the spreadsheet:

=sum(B:D,F:G)
 67

References to cells on other worksheets

• Cell on another sheet: sheetName!cellReference
• Range on another sheet: sheetName!range
• Row on another sheet: sheetName!row:row
• Column on another sheet: sheetName!column:column

• If a sheet name has a space in it, you must surround

the sheet name with apostrophes (i.e. single quotes)

• Examples
sheet2!a1
sheet2!b4:c8
'2002 Forecasts'!f3:f10
=sum('2002 Forecasts'!f3:f10)
=sum('2202 Forecasts'!f:f)
 68

More examples
• Add up values from 2 different sheets
=sum ( 'great stocks'!b2:c4, 'so so stocks'!b2:c4)

• This next one is a little confusing

=sum (a1,a!a1,b1:b4,b1!b4,c!c:c)

Explanation
a1 this is a cell reference on the current sheet
a!a1 "a" is the name of sheet. "a1" is a cell on the "a" sheet
b1:b4 this is a range on the current sheet
b1!b4 "b1" is the name of a sheet. "b4" is a cell on the "b1"
sheet
c!c:c “c" is the name of a sheet. “c:c" is all of the cells in the c column
on the “c” sheet
 69

Absolute and Relative

Cell References
 70

Absolute and Relative Cell References

• By default, when you copy a formula that contains
a cell reference, excel will automatically adjust the
cell reference.

• You can stop Excel from automatically adjusting

the cell reference by using one or more dollar
signs ($) in the cell reference. These are called
absolute cell references.

• A cell reference without a dollar sign is a relative

cell reference.
 71

Examples
• The following all refer to the same cell
d9
$d$9
$d9
d$9

• The only difference between these cell references

relates to what happens when you copy a formula
that contains the cell reference.
 72

Relative Cell Reference

• d9 This is a "relative cell reference".
– Changing the column: If I copy this cell reference to
another cell:
• the "d" will increment one letter for every cell that I move
over to the right.
• The "d" will decrement one letter for every cell that I move
over to the left
– Changing the row: If I copy this cell reference to
another cell:
• the "9" will increment by one for every cell that I move
down.
• The "9" will decrement by one for every cell that I move up
 73

Absolute cell reference

• $d$9 This is an absolute cell reference.
– If I copy a formula with this cell reference, the cell
reference will NOT change AT ALL.
 74

Mixed References
• $d9 and d$9 These are "Mixed" cell references:

• $d9
– The "d" will stay the same when you copy the cell, but
the "9" will change.

• d$9
– The "d" will change when you copy the cell, but the
"9" will stay the same.
 75

Data Types
 76

• Numeric
Data Types
– values: any number
– operators: + - * / ^ %
– sample functions: sum( ), average( ), max( ), min( ) etc.

• Text (AKA Character or String)

– values: Any group of letters or numbers or special characters.
Prefix value in cell with an apostrophe ( ' ) to force a text value
– operators: & (concatenation)
– sample functions: right( ), left(), mid(), lower(), upper(), len(), etc

• Dates
– values: dates and times
operators: N/A
– sample functions: now( ), today( ), hour(), minute(), etc.

• Logical (AKA boolean)

– values: true false
– Operators: < > = <> <= >=
– sample functions: if( ), and( ), or( ), not( ), isblank()
 77

Data Types for Values in Cells

• By default:
– a cell that contains a number is treated as numeric data
– a cell that contains a date is treated as date data (we'll
see more about this later)
– a cell that contains data which is
not numeric and not a date is treated as "text"
Text Data

78
 79

Text / String / Character

• The following three terms all used to refer to
"text" data. All three terms mean the same thing.

– text data
– string data
– character data

• This presentation will generally use the term "text

data" but you should be familiar with the terms
"string data" and "character data"
 80

Text data
• Text data is used to store general purpose text (e.g.
names, places, descriptions, etc)

• You can't do "math" with text values (obviously)

 81
Text isn't part of numerical calculations
(obviously)
Formula to formula view (press Cntrl-`)
add up all
numbers in
column C

(Same
Spreadsheet)

values view (press Cntrl-`)

Text data in
C1 is not
included in
the Sum
Text Functions

82
 83

Text Functions
• Many functions are used to manipulate text
values.
• The following are only some of them
right( )
left( )
mid( )
concatenate( )
lower( )
upper( )
len( )
RIGHT, LEFT and MID
functions

84
 85

RIGHT function
• The RIGHT function is used to isolate a specific
number of “characters” from the right hand side of
a text value.
• (example on next slide)
 86

RIGHT ( <text>, <numCharacters>)

Formula View

Values View
 87

RIGHT – numCharacters is optional

• The <numCharacters> parameter in the RIGHT
function is optional. If you don’t specify it the
default is 1 (one).
Formula View

These produce the

same results.
Values View
 88

LEFT
• The LEFT function is the same as the RIGHT
function, but it returns characters from the LEFT
side of the value.
 89
MID ( <text>, <startPosition> ,
<numCharacters>)
• MID is used to get values from the middle of some
text.

• MID takes 3 parameters:

– The original text
– The position to start taking the new value from
– The number of characters to take for the new value

• Example on next slide

 90
Example: MID ( <text>, <startPosition> ,
<numCharacters>)

• This example extracts the second through the

fourth characters from the original text value:
Formula View

Values View
 Concatenation
( & ) and
CONCATENATE function

91
 92

Concatenation (&)
• Use & to combine (or concatenate) two different text values

Formula View

Values View

Notice that there is no

space between the two
values
 93

Concatenate many values

• You may concatenate many values together
Formula View

Values View
 94

Concatenation with "literal" values

• You can also concatenate "literal" values.
• You must include the literal values inside quotes
• For example to display spaces in the "full name"
in the previous example you could use the
following formula. Each space that you want to
display must be included in quotes.

=A2&" "&B2&" "&C2

(Don't forget any of the &'s )
• See next slide ...
 95

Concatenating spaces - Example

• You can concatenate spaces into a formula
Formula View

Values View values

contain
spaces
 96

LEFT( ) with & in same formula

• You can combine the results of different function
calls with concatenation.
Formula View

Values View
 97

Putting it all together

• In this example we concatenate periods into the
initials.
Formula View

Values View

The initials now contain

periods
 98

CONCATENATE Function
• You can use the CONCATENATE function instead
of the ampersand (&).
• The following formulas are equivalent:

=A1&B1&C1

=CONCATENATE(A1,B1,C1)

• The CONCATENATE function can take as many

parameters as you like.
More Text Functions:
LOWER
UPPER
LEN

99
 LOWER ( <textValue> )
100

UPPER ( <textValue> )
• LOWER converts text to lower case.
• UPPER converts text to upper case.
• Example:
Formula View

Values View
 101

LEN ( <textValue> )
• LEN returns a numeric value equal to the number
of character in a text value (i.e. the “length” of the
text value).
• Spaces ARE included in the length.
• Example

Formula View

Values View
Dates and Times

102
 103

How Excel Stores Dates

• Dates are stored in Excel as the number of days since Dec 31,
1899 for that date. (ex. Jan 1, 1900 is stored as the number 1).
• To see this, type a date in a cell and then press Ctrl-` to see the
“formulas view”.
• Example
– Values View
Dates become
numbers in
“formulas
view”

– Formulas View
 104

Times and Dates in the same Cell

• A cell can contain both a date and a time.

• The value of both the date and the time is stored internally as a single decimal number.

• The whole number portion represents the DATE and is the number of days since Dec. 31,
1899

• The decimal part represents the TIME and is the fraction of the day that has elapsed.

• Examples:

– Jan 1, 1900 at 12AM is 1.0 (i.e. 1 day since Dec 31, 1899 and 0 percent of the day elapsed so far)

– Jan 1, 1900 at 12PM is 1.5 (i.e. 0.5 of the day elapsed)

– Jan 2, 1900 at 12PM is 2.5 (i.e. 2 days since Dec. 31, 1899)

– Feb 1, 1900 at 1:05 PM is 32.5451388888889 (i.e. 32 days since Dec 31, 1899 and
0.5451388888889 of the day elapsed by 1:05 PM. This makes sense as it is a little past noon so a
little more than half of the day elapsed.
 105

Times and Dates - Example

• Values View

• Formulas View
 106

Date Arithmetic
• You can do arithmetic with dates.
• Add and subtract days by adding and subtracting whole numbers.
• Add and subtract times by adding and subtracting fractional values.

• Examples
=A1+7 (one week after the date in A1)
=A1-5*7 (5 weeks before the date in A1)
=A1- (1/24) (one hour before the time specified in A1)
=A1+ (3/24) (three hours after the time specified in A1)
=A1+2.5 (two and a half days after the time specified in A1)
=A1-A2+1 (the # of days between the date in A1 and the date in A2)
 107

Formatting cells with Dates and Times

• Right click on the cell and
choose “Format Cells”
• From the “Category” list in the
“Number” tab either
– Choose “Date”, “Time” or
“Custom” and choose an
appropriate looking format

OR

– If you choose “General” or

“Number”, the internal number
for the Date/Time will be
displayed in the spreadsheet even
in the “values” view.
Logical (AKA boolean) values

108
 109

TRUE and FALSE

• A logical value can be one of only two values

TRUE

or

FALSE
 110

TRUE
• The following statements are TRUE:

Fish live in water.

Deer live on land.

• The following statements are also TRUE:

3 is greater than 2
2 is less than 3
2 is less than or equal to 3
2 is less than or equal to 2
3 is greater than or equal to 2
3 is greater than or equal to 3
2 is equal to 2
2 is not equal to 3
 111

FALSE
• The following statements are FALSE:

Fish live on land.

Deer live in water.

• The following statements are also FALSE:

2 is greater than 3
3 is less than 2
3 is less than or equal to 2
2 is greater than or equal to 3
2 is equal to 3
2 is not equal to 2
 112

Logical operators
• In Excel the following "operators" are used
Operator Meaning
> greater than
< less than
>= greater than or equal to
<= less than or equal to
= equal to
<> not equal to
• Examples
3>2 true
3<2 false
 113

Logical Formulas
Formula View Values View
 114

Same formulas, different values

Formula View Values View
 115

IF Function
 116

Parameters for IF function

 117

IF function

Formula View Values View

 118

IF with a numeric result

 119

IF with a numerical result

Formula View Values View
 120

AND

OR

NOT
 121

AND
• The following is TRUE

Fish live in water AND deer live on land.

• The following are all FALSE

Fish live in water AND deer live in water.

Fish live on land AND deer live on land.
Fish live on land AND deer live in water.
 122

AND function
 123

AND
Formula View Values View
 124

IF with AND - nested function calls

• You can use an AND inside of an IF.
• This is called a NESTED FUNCTION CALL
• Example

=IF( AND (A2>A3,B2<>B3) , 500, 1000)

AND is "nested" inside of the IF

These parentheses "belong to" the if

 125

IF with AND - parameters

Parameters for IF function:
 126

IF with AND - spreadsheet views

Formula View Values View

 127

AND function
• Takes any number of parameters
• Returns TRUE if ALL of the parameters evaluate
to TRUE otherwise returns FALSE.
 128

OR and NOT functions

 129

OR
• Takes any number of parameters
• Returns TRUE if ANY of the parameters evaluate
to TRUE otherwise returns FALSE
 130

NOT
• Takes ONLY ONE parameter
• Returns the "opposite" of the value of the
parameter
– returns FALSE if the parameter value is TRUE
– returns TRUE if the parameter value is FALSE
 131

Examples of Complex Nested Function Calls

• =IF(AND(A2>A3, OR(B2=B3,C2<C3)), 500, 1000)

• =IF(NOT(AND(A2>A3, OR(B2=B3,C2<C3))), 500, 1000)

• =IF(AND(A2>A3, NOT(OR(B2=B3,C2<C3))), 500, 1000)

Other Logical Functions:
ISBLANK

132
 133
ISBLANK( <value> )
• ISBLANK returns TRUE if the value is blank and
false otherwise. (see example below) Total will be
wrong if
quantity is
blank (since
a blank is
normally
Total will be correct even if quantity
treated as
is blank (quantity is assumed to be 1
zero)
Formula View in that case)

blank value
Values View
APPENDICIES

134
Using the mouse to create
formulas.

135
 136

Click to choose cell references

• Once you type the equal sign (=) you can click with your
mouse to enter cell references into a formula.

Now you can click with your mouse to

enter cell references.

• Example on following slides

 137

Example: click to get cell reference

• Type a number in cell A1 • Type a plus sign (+) sign and
the dashed line around cell A1
disappears.

• type an equal sign (=) in B1

• You can continue to fill out the

rest of the formula now:

• Click on cell A1. You will see

a dashed line around cell A1
and the text “A1” (without the
quotes) will be entered into the • Press ENTER to get the result:
formula in B1. The dashed line
indicates that this is the cell
reference being entered.
 138

Example: changing the cell reference

• Type numbers in cells A1 and B1 • Click cell B1. The dashed line moves to
cell B1 and the text in cell C1 changes to
“B1”. You can keep clicking on different
cells until you click on the right one.

• Type an equal sign (=) in C1

• Type a plus sign (+) sign. The dashed line

around cell B1 disappears.

• Click on cell A1. You will see a

dashed line around cell A1 and
the text “A1” (without the • If you click on another cell now, a new cell
quotes) will be entered into the reference will be entered.
formula in C1. The dashed line
indicates that this is the cell
reference being entered.
• You can continue to fill out the rest of the
formula now …
Use mouse to enter other types of cell
139

references.
• Cell ranges:
• Click and drag on a cell to enter a cell range reference

• Cells on a different worksheet

– Click on a cell on another worksheet to enter a
reference from a different worksheet.
– Be sure to type the next symbol in the formula (e.g. a
plus sign (+) , a comma (,) , etc before you click on the
original tab. If you don’t then the formula will be
incorrect (try it).
FORMATTING A CELL AS
TEXT

140
 141

Numbers with leading zeros

• Sometimes you desire to have to have zeroes displayed at the beginning of a number.
• For example, US social security numbers are made up of 9 digits. The first few digits may
be zeroes.
• This causes in a problem in Excel. When you type in a number with leading zeroes into a
cell, Excel removes the leading zeroes when you press Enter.

• EXAMPLE:
If you type the following into a cell (before you press Enter)

When you press Enter you get this:

Leading
zeroes are
missing

• See next slides for how to fix this …

 142

Formatting a cell to display as text

• To fix this problem you can “format” the cell to
display as “text” instead of as a “number”.
• The value will still be able to be used in
calculations but it will be displayed on the screen
using the rules for text values instead of the rules
to display numbers
• One of the rules Excel uses to displaying numbers
is to remove leading zeroes.
• However, if a number displayed as "text" data then
Excel WILL display leading zeros.
• See next slide for instructions on how to do this …
 143

Opening the "Format cells" dialog box

• Select the cell or cells that you want to format as text.
• Right click on the selected cell(s) and choose the
following from the popup menu
format cells

or click on a cell and choose the following menu choice

format | cells

• Then you will see the "Format Cells" dialog box.

(See the next slide ...)
 144

"Format Cells" dialog box

• Choose
"Text"
from the
"Numbe
r" tab
and
press the
OK
button.
 145

Not a Perfect Solution …

• When you format the cell as “text” it will display
the leading zeroes (you must type them in again).
• However, Excel will warn you that a number is
formatted as text. (see next slide)
 146

Result of Formatting a Number as Text

• Excel indicates this issue
with a
green triangle in the upper
left hand corner of the cell:

• If you select the cell you

can see the error message.

• You can have Excel to

ignore this type of “error”
by choosing the “Tools |
Options” menu choice and
unchecking the “Number
stored as text” option from
the “Error Checking” tab.
(this solution is not shown
on this slide)
Another Option – using an
Apostrophe (‘)

147
 148
Force a Cell to Display as Text by Using an
Apostrophe (')
• Another way to display leading zeroes in a number is to
type an apostrophe as the first character in the cell.
• When you press Enter, the apostrophe is NOT displayed
in the cell (it is displayed in the formula bar).
• The apostrophe tells Excel that the contents of the cell
should be treated as text.
• The apostrophe is similar to the = sign.
– The = sign tells Excel that the cell contains a formula.
– The apostrophe (‘) tells Excel that the cell contains a text value.
 149

Results of Using an Apostrophe

• Type an apostrophe
followed by the SSN.
• Before pressing Enter
you can see the
apostrophe.
• After pressing Enter you
can’t see the apostrophe
anymore and leading
zeroes remain.
However, Excel will
warn you that a number
is formatted as text via
the green triangle. (see
earlier slides)
Ignoring numbers in calculations

150
 151

Ignoring numbers in calculations

• Typing an apostrophe (‘) as the first character in a
cell with a number has the additional effect of
causing the number to be ignored in calculations.

• NOTE: This does not happen when you format

the cell that contains a number to display as text.
 152

Ignoring numbers in calculations.

• By default, all numbers are included in numeric
calculations.
• However, you can force a cell that contains a number to
be treated as text and not be included in calculations with
numeric functions (ex. SUM, AVERAGE, etc.) by
placing an apostrophe as the first
character in the cell
 153

Example
Formula to formula view (press Cntrl-`)
add up all
numbers in
column D

(Same
Spreadsheet)

values view (press Cntrl-`)

The Year is
incorrectly
included in
the sum.
 154

Example - continued
To fix the problem you can This will force NOTE: When you stop
add an apostrophe (') before the number to editing the cell, the
the data for the year (no space be treated as apostrophe will NOT be
necessary after the text (see next visible in the spreadsheet.
apostrophe). slide). However, it will be visible in
the formula bar.
 155

Example - finished
The number for the year is The apostrophe in not visible in The apostrophe IS
now treated as text and is the spreadsheet (unless you're visible in the formula
not included in the sum. editing the cell). bar.