Get ready to pull back the curtain on one of Excel’s most powerful features – formulas. Excel formulas are the first thing you should reach for when you want to do something with your data more than once. Whether you’re calculating totals, finding averages, joining multiple text values, or identifying outliers in your data, formulas are your go-to tool. Let’s dive in!

How Do Excel Formulas Work, Anyway?

Picture an Excel formula as a mini program, doing calculations right inside your spreadsheet. At its core, a formula starts with an equals sign (=; because we’re saying we want the cell to equal the result) followed by a series of calculations. For example, you might type “=A1+A2” to add the values in cells A1 and A2.

Excel formulas can use arithmetic operators like “+” for addition, “-” for subtraction, “/” for division, “*” for multiplication, and “^” for exponentiation. You can also use cell references (like A1 or B2), static numbers, or text inside your formulas, depending on what you need.

Functions (another branch of the broad ‘formula’ umbrella) are built-in formulas that perform specific calculations or operations. Excel boasts more than 450 of these handy gadgets, ranging from simple functions like SUM (adds up a range of cells) to more complex ones like VLOOKUP (finds something in a table based on matching an input value; also everyone’s favorite benchmark for Excel proficiency).

Using functions is easy – just start with an equals sign, add the function name, and then include any required arguments inside parentheses. So, to find the average of numbers in cells A1 to A5, you’d type “=AVERAGE(A2:A5)”.

Nesting and Combining Functions

Now, you might be wondering, “Can I use more than one function in a formula?” Absolutely! You can nest functions (put one function inside another) and combine functions to create more complex calculations.

For instance, let’s say you want to find the highest average sales from three different regions. You could use a MAX function to find the highest value, and AVERAGE functions to calculate the averages for each region, like this: “=MAX(AVERAGE(A2:A5), AVERAGE(B2:B5), AVERAGE(C2:C5))”.

Common Uses of Excel Formulas

So, what can you do with Excel formulas?

1. Math and Statistics: From adding up sales numbers with SUM to calculating averages with AVERAGE, Excel formulas have you covered. Want to find the highest or lowest value? Try MAX or MIN. Need to count how many cells have numbers? There’s COUNT for that.
2. Text Manipulation: With functions like LEFT, RIGHT, MID, CONCATENATE (or the ampersand (&)), and TRIM, Excel is a whiz at manipulating text. You can extract parts of strings, combine text from different cells, and clean up pesky extra spaces in no time.
3. Date and Time Calculations: Excel is a pro at handling dates and times. Use TODAY for today’s date, NOW for the current date and time, or WEEKDAY to find the day of the week. And with functions like EDATE and EOMONTH, you can add or subtract months from a date, or find the last day of a month.
4. Logical Functions: IF, AND, OR, NOT – Excel’s logical functions let you make decisions based on conditions. Want to give a bonus to all salespeople who exceeded their target? The IF function has your back!
5. Lookups: With VLOOKUP and HLOOKUP, Excel can find data in a table based on what you give it. Need to find an employee’s salary based on their ID number? A lookup function can do that.
6. Data Analysis: With functions like SUMIF, COUNTIF, AVERAGEIF, and their multiple criteria versions (SUMIFS, COUNTIFS, AVERAGEIFS), you can perform calculations based on conditions. Want to know the total sales of a specific product? SUMIF can handle that.

The Bottom Line

Formulas are one of (and perhaps the most accessible among) Excel’s superpowers, making your spreadsheets dynamic, flexible, and interactive. They can perform simple arithmetic, complex calculations, and everything in between. And the real beauty of formulas is their versatility – they can handle numbers, text, dates, and more while allowing you to combine them in different ways to get exactly what you needed.

Remember, Excel is just a tool, and like any tool, its power depends on the skill of the user. So now that we’ve covered the intro, find our other articles on specific formula and function types to learn more!