Wiley Microsoft Office Excel 2007 Formulas & Functions For Dummies
Contents
1. 2 2 Returns the number 4 A1 A2 Returns the sum of the values in cells A1 and A2 what ever those values may be If either A1 or A2 has text in it then an error is returned D5 The cell that contains this formula ends up displaying the value that is in cell D5 If you try to enter this formula into cell D5 itself you create a circular reference That is a no no See Chapter 4 SUM A2 A5 Returns the sum of the values in cells A2 A3 A4 and A5 Recall from above the syntax for a range This formula uses the SUM function to sum up all the values in the range Entering your first formula Ready to enter your first formula Make sure Excel is running and a work sheet is in front of you and then 1 Click an empty cell 2 Type this in 10 10 3 Press Enter Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals 2 es Figure 1 14 Entering a formula that references cells That was easy wasn t it You should see the result of the formula the number 20 Try another This time you create a formula that adds together the value of two cells Click any cell Type in any number Click another cell Type in another number Click a third cell This cell will contain the formula a Type a 7 Click the first cell This is an important point in the creation of the formula The formula is being written by both your keyboard entry and clicking around with the2. so far 4 Name the area if need be Excel guesses that you want to name the area with the value it finds in the top cell of the range That may or may not be what you want Change the name if you need to In this example we changed the name to Clients An alternative method to naming an area is to select it type the name in the Name Box left of the Formula Bar and press the Enter key Hew Name Px Hame CeryLWhaey Sopa Workbook Cammant Refers to Cians and Pats t A 3 AS90 Es 5 Click the OK button That s it Hey you re already on your way to being an Excel pro Now that you have a named area you can easily select your data at any time Just go to the Name Box and select it from the list Figure 1 10 shows how we select the Clients area we set up Tables work in much the same manner as named areas Tables have a few fea tures that are unavailable to simple named areas With tables you can indi cate that the top row contains header labels Further tables default to have filtering ability Figure 1 11 shows a table on a worksheet with headings and filtering ability Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals fos Chanter Compatibilty Mace Micrasett Fiesi E hanteri Campabtlty M dirrocatt F a Heme maut Pupelosuul Fees Osta wiew View Devttuper ens w 9 f X awosun logal r iaiNaneasange DTrace Precedents S J gl a Ka Data A
3. the mouse pointer changes shape If you click and hold down the mouse button you can now drag up down or across over other cells When you let go of the mouse button the contents of the active cell automatically copy to the cells you dragged over A picture is worth a thousand words so take a look Figure 1 17 shows a worksheet that adds some numbers Cell E4 has this formula B4 C4 D4 This formula needs to be placed in cells E5 through E15 Look closely at cell E4 The mouse pointer is over the fill handle and it has changed to what looks like a small black plus sign We are about to use the fill handle to drag that formula to the other cells Clicking and holding the left mouse button down and then dragging down to E15 does the trick Z gt iy Estas u r Retail Mail Order Internet TOTAL DY MONTH mts 1 si 1 793 a wi 7 4015 99 it 3 wr 115 150 i 145 175 1 rr 135 122 921 ao 741 Figure 1 18 shows what the worksheet looks like after the fill handle is used to get the formula into all the cells This is a real timesaver Also you can see that the formula in each cell of column E correctly references the cells to its left This is the intention of using relative referencing For example the for mula in cell E15 ended up with this formula B15 C15 D15 Assembling formulas the right way There s a saying in the computer business garbage in garbage out And that applies to how formula
4. Book Sheet Name Cal Yala Formula Book 20a7 xs Baseball Core Collection E3 3 Fit 43 SUWKaresl Book 2097 gt fsx Sheet D12 s SUMTableL Working with rows column cells ranges and tables A worksheet contains cells Lots of them Billions of them This might seem unmanageable but actually it s pretty straightforward Figure 1 7 shows a worksheet filled with data Use this to look at a worksheet s components Each cell can contain data or a formula In Figure 1 7 the cells contain data Some or even all cells could contain formulas but that s not the case here Columns have letter headers A B C and so on You can see these listed hor izontally just above the area where the cells are After you get past the 26th column a double lettering system is used AA AB and so on After all the two letter combinations are used up a triple letter scheme is used Rows are listed vertically down the left side of the screen and use a numbering system Name Box Formula Box nka inie Peterki u Clients and Pets Til Mocy o rer i Fi Rows Active Cell Columns Part Putting the Fun in Functions S Getting to know the Formula Bar Taken together the Formula Box and the Name Box make up the Formula Bar You use the Formula Bar quite a bit as you work with formu las and functions The Formula Box is used to enter and edits formulas The Formula Box is the lo
5. These squares are actually called RefEdit controls They make argument entry a snap All you do is click one click the cell with the value and then press Enter Click the RefEdit control to the right of the Number entry box The Function Arguments dialog box shrinks to just the size of the entry box Click the cell with the first number Figure 1 23 shows what the screen looks like at this point Press Enter The Function Arguments dialog box reappears with the argument entered into the box The argument is not the value in the cell but instead is the address of the cell that contains the value exactly what you want Repeat Steps 7 9 to enter the other two cell references Figure 1 24 shows what the screen should now look like ee Figure 1 23 Using RefEdit to enter arguments EEE SEE Figure 1 24 Completing the function entry SEE air Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals 33 PRODUCT B3 PRODUCT B3 25 87 REFE Fl 12 Click OK or press Enter to complete the function Figure 1 25 shows the result of all this hoopla The PRODUCT function returns the result of the individual numbers being multiplied together You do not have to use the Insert Function dialog box to enter functions into cells It is there for convenience As you become familiar with certain func tions that you use repeatedly you may find it faster
6. changes 30 Part Putting the Fun in Functions ROY amp A formula can consist of nothing but a single function preceded by an equal sign of course Looking at what goes into a function Most functions take inputs called arguments or parameters that specify the data the function is to use Some functions take no arguments some take one and others take many it all depends on the function The argument list is always enclosed in parentheses following the function name If there s more than one argument they are separated by commas Look at a few examples Function Comment NOW Takes no arguments AVERAGE A6 A11 B7 Can take up to 255 arguments Here three cell references are included as arguments The arguments are separated by commas AVERAGE A6 A10 A13 A19 A23 A29 In this example the argu ments are range references instead of cell references The arguments are separated by commas IPMT B5 B6 B7 B8 Requires four arguments Commas separate the arguments Some functions have required arguments and optional arguments You must provide the required ones The optional ones are well optional But you may want to include them if their presence helps the function return the value you need The IPMT function is a good example Four arguments are required and two more are optional You can read more about the IPMT function in Chapter 5 You can read more about function arguments
7. feature Y Formula Auditing These features have been through many Excel incar nations but never before have the features been so prominent Also here is the Watch Window which lets you keep an eye on the values in designated cells but within one window In Figure 1 6 you can see that a few cells have been assigned to the Watch Window If any values change you can see in the Watch Window Note how the watched cells are on sheets that are not the current active sheet Neat Calculation This is where you manage calculation settings such as whether calculation is automatic or manual Solutions Any loaded add ins that provide further functions appear here In Figure 1 5 the Data Analysis Add in is just another name for the ever popular Analysis ToolPak ay Another new feature that goes hand in hand with the Ribbon is the Quick Access Toolbar So there is a toolbar after all In Figure 1 5 the Quick Access Toolbar sits just under the left side of the Ribbon On it are icons that per form actions with a single click The icons are ones you select by using the Customization tab in the Excel Options dialog box You can put the toolbar above or below the Ribbon by right clicking the Quick Access Toolbar and choosing the option Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals 13 ee Figure 1 6 Eyeing the Watch Window a Figure 1 7 Looking at what goes into a worksheet A 2 Add Watch
8. mouse The formula should look about half complete with an equal sign immediately followed by the address of the cell you just clicked Figure 1 14 shows what this looks like In the example the value 15 has been entered into cell B3 and the value 35 into cell B6 The formula was started in cell E3 Cell E3 so far has B3 in it 8 Enter a Point haa Sioned R PE 22 Part I Putting the Fun in Functions Dn Figure 1 15 Completing the formula Figure 1 16 A finished formula EE 9 Click the cell that has the second entered value In this example this is cell B6 The formula in cell E3 now looks like this B3 B6 You can see this is Figure 1 15 On t M F r 3 Berr as eaen ut won 4 x X gt F a t Bio Find amp 2 Sule d Font mpa id tiik kl exact X A inaia H D E H M oT 1 1 eed 1 a coe 3 le Sere 2 3 a 5 4 20 lt 4 r EEN Potre et gt ajn i Hed 10 Press Enter This ends the entry of the function All done Congratulations Figure 1 16 shows how the example ended up Cell E3 displays the result of the calculation Also notice that the Formula Bar displays the contents of cell E3 which really is the formula genset F Delete EjFormat Rey o gt jst ao L me Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals 23 Understanding references References abound in Excel formulas You can reference cells You can r
9. one and only one active worksheet To make another work sheet active just click its tab bhi Shecti Sheet Sheots 003 9 10 Part I Putting the Fun in Functions lt e e Figure 1 3 Changing the name ofa worksheet PC NG gt Worksheet spreadsheet and just plain old sheet are used interchangeably to mean the worksheet Guess what s really cool You can change the name of the worksheets Names like Sheet1 and Sheet2 are just not exciting How about Baseball Card Collection or Last Year s Taxes Well actually Last Year s Taxes isn t too exciting either The point is you can give your worksheets meaningful names You have two ways to do this Double click the worksheet tab and then type in a new name 1 Right click the worksheet tab select Rename from the list and then type in anew name Figure 1 3 shows one worksheet name already changed and another about to be changed by right clicking its tab You can try changing a worksheet name on your own Do it the easy way 1 Double click a worksheet s tab 2 Type in a new name and press Enter You can change the color of worksheet tabs Right click the tab and select Tab Color from the list To insert a new worksheet into a workbook click the Insert sheet tab which is located after the last worksheet tab Figure 1 4 shows how To delete a worksheet just right click the worksheet s tab and select Delete from th
10. the MAX function 7 Enter a closing parenthesis to end the first MAX function 8 Enter a comma 9 Once again enter MAX 10 11 12 13 Click the first cell in the second set of numbers press the mouse button and drag over all the cells of the second set The address of this range enters into the MAX function Enter a closing parenthesis to end the second MAX function Enter a This ends the AVERAGE function Press Enter Figure 1 27 shows the result of your nested function Cell C14 has this for mula AVERAGE MAX B4 B10 MAX D4 D10 Wh en using nested functions the outer function is preceded with an equal sign if it is the beginning of the formula Any nested functions are not pre ceded with an equal sign 36 Part I Putting the Fun in Functions CTF average ot te top valuas PCs Figure 1 27 Getting a result from nested functions x ees J ar You can nest functions up to 64 levels
11. 1 Enter three numbers in three different cells 2 Click an empty cell where you want the result to appear 3 Click the Function Wizard button on the Formulas Ribbon As an alternative you can just click the little amp button on the Formula Bar The Insert Function dialog box appears 4 Select either All or Math amp Trig 5 In the list of functions find and select the PRODUCT function 6 Click the OK button This closes the Insert Function dialog box and displays the Function Arguments dialog box see Figure 1 22 where you can enter as many arguments as needed Initially it might not look like it can accommodate enough arguments You need to enter three in this example but it looks like there is only room for two This is like musical chairs 32 Part I Putting the Fun in Functions Figure 1 22 Getting ready to enter some arguments tothe function E 10 11 OLC x oy Al PROOUCI RefEdit controls IA piens d the orders cane as aroun EPES More argument entry boxes appear as you need them First though how do you enter the argument There are two ways Enter the argument one of two ways e Type the numbers or cell references into the boxes e Use those funny looking squares to the right of the entry boxes In Figure 1 22 two entry boxes are ready to go To the left of them are the names Number and Number2 To the right of the boxes are the little squares
12. Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals In This Chapter Getting the skinny on workbooks and worksheets Understanding the parts of a worksheet Working with cells ranges named areas and tables Applying formatting Figuring out how to use the Help system Writing formulas Using functions in formulas Using nested functions ar f is to computer programs what a Ferrari is to cars sleek on the out side and a lot of power under the hood Excel is also like a truck it can handle all your data lots of it In fact in Excel 2007 a single worksheet has 17 179 869 184 places to hold data Yes that s what we said over 17 billion data placeholders And that s on just one worksheet Opening files created in earlier versions of Excel may show just the number of worksheet rows and columns available in the version the workbook was created with Excel is used in all types of businesses And you know how that s possible By being able to store and work with any kind of data It doesn t matter whether you re in finance or sales whether you run a video store or organize wilderness trips or whether you re charting party RSVPs or tracking the scores of your favorite sports teams Excel can handle all of it Its number crunching ability is just awesome And so easy to use Just putting a bunch of information on worksheets doesn t crunch the data or give you sums results or analyses If you wa
13. Text Box ae i eerie i XY Scatter SO L Header amp Footer hga votTan Ta ct li i shape PivotTabie able Picture SmartArt COLUM a Bar Other Charts Hyperlink Aworan 2 Shapes Tables Illustrations Chans p Links Text 9 05 GEDSH E18 Aa PA A g c D E F G H I J K 1 2 3 litem Edeast_ Bl West_Ei North E South E3 4 Gadgets 4 7 5 5 Gizmos 3 8 8 6 Things 2 6 7 amp 7 8 i 3 20 Figure 1 11 Trying out 13 a table 1 is 4b hi Baseball Card Collection Sheet2 JEI m es ee With filtering you can limit which rows show based on which values you select to display e The Insert Ribbon contains the button to use for inserting a table The Insert Ribbon is shown in Figure 1 11 18 Part Putting the Fun in Functions ee Figure 1 12 Formatting data aS Formatting your data Of course you want to make your data look all spiffy and shiny Bosses like that Is the number 98 6 someone s temperature Is it a score on a test Is it ninety eight dollars and sixty cents Is it a percentage Any of these formats is correct 1 98 6 98 60 1 98 6 Excel lets you format your data in just the way you need Formatting options are on the Home Ribbon in the Number category Figure 1 12 shows how formatting helps in the readability and understanding of a worksheet Cell B1 has a monetary amount and is formatted with the Accounting style Cell B2 is formatted as a percent The actual
14. ant rela tive addressing but rather absolute addressing This is making a cell reference fixed to an absolute cell address so that it does not change when the formula is copied In an absolute cell reference a dollar sign precedes both the column letter and the row number You can also have a mixed reference in which the column is absolute and the row is relative or vice versa To create a mixed reference you use the dollar sign in front of just the column letter or row number Here are some examples Reference Type Formula What Happens After Copying the Formula Relative Al Either or both the column letter A and the row number 1 can change Absolute SAS1 The column letter A and the row number 1 do not change Mixed SA1 The column letter A does not change The row number 1 can change Mixed AS1 The column letter A can change The row number 1 does not change Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals 25 De Figure 1 17 Getting ready to drag the formula down 23 Copying formulas with the fill handle As long as we re on the subject of copying formulas around take a look at the fill handle You re gonna love this one The fill handle is a quick way to copy the contents of a cell to other cells with just a single click and drag The active cell always has a little square box in the lower right side of its border That is the fill handle When you move the mouse pointer over the fill handle
15. cell that you find at the intersection of column D and row 20 In Figure 1 7 the active cell is C7 You have a couple of ways to see this For starters cell C7 has a border around it Also notice that the column head C is shaded as well as row number 7 Just above the column headers are the Name Box and the Formula Box The Name Box is all the way to the left and shows the active cell s address of C7 To the right of the Name Box the Formula Box shows the contents of cell C7 If the Formula Bar is not visible choose the Advanced tab in the Display sec tion in the Excel Options dialog box choose to make it visible A range is usually a group of adjacent cells although noncontiguous cells can be included in the same range but that s mostly for rocket scientists and those obsessed with calculus For your purposes assume a range is a group of continuous cells Make a range right now Here s how Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals 15 MBER KV amp a Figure 1 8 Selecting a range of cells 1 Position the mouse pointer over the first cell where you wish to define a range 2 Press and hold the left mouse button down 3 Move the pointer to the last cell of your desired area 4 Release the mouse button Figure 1 8 shows what happened when we did this We selected a range of cells The address of this range is A3 D21 A range address looks like two cell addresses put together with a c
16. d with the average of the range B1 B5 This is an example of a formula that combines the result of two functions Ready to write your first formula with a function in it This function creates an average 1 Enter some numbers in a column s cells 2 Click an empty cell where you want to see the result 3 Enter AVERAGE to start the function Note New in Excel 2007 Excel presents a list of functions that have the same spelling as the function name you type The more letters you type the shorter the list becomes The advantage is for example typing the letter A using the J to select the AVERAGE function and then pressing the Tab key 4 Click the first cell with an entered value and while holding the mouse button drag the mouse pointer over the other cells that have values An alternative is to enter the range of those cells 5 Enter a 6 Press Enter If all went well your worksheet should look a little bit like ours in Figure 1 20 Cell B10 has the calculated result but look up at the Formula Bar and you can see the actual function as it was entered W Formulas and functions are dependent on the cells and ranges to which they refer If you change the data in one of the cells the result returned by the func tion updates You can try this now In the example you just did with making an average click into one of the cells with the values and enter a different number The returned average
17. e list Don t delete a worksheet unless you really mean to You cannot get it back after it is gone It does not go into the Windows Recycle Bin Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals Figure 1 4 Inserting anew worksheet ee 34 35 36 37 EAZ Basebal Care Colection Sheet2 Sheet3 Is Ready gt Insert Worksheet You can insert many new worksheets The limit of how many is based on your computer s memory but you should have no problem inserting 200 or more Of course we hope you have a good reason for having so many Which brings us to the next point Worksheets organize your data Use them wisely and you will find it easy to manage your data For example let s say you are the boss we thought you d like that and you have 30 employees that you are tracking information on over the course of a year You might have 30 worksheets one for each employee Or you might have 12 worksheets one for each month Or you may just keep it all on one worksheet How you use Excel is up to you but Excel is ready to handle whatever you throw at it New Excel files default to having three worksheets You can change this default number on the Personalize tab in the Excel Options dialog box To dis play the dialog box click the Microsoft Office button and then click the Excel Options button Introducing the Formulas Ribbon It s a fact of life or rather a fact of Microsoft mark
18. e number of rows and or columns that separate the original cell where the formula is being copied from from the new cell where the formula is being copied to This may be confusing so try an example so you can see this for yourself 1 In cell B2 enter 100 2 In cell C2 enter B2 2 3 Press Enter Cell C2 now returns the value 200 24 Part I Putting the Fun in Functions 4 If C2 is not the active cell click it once 5 Press Ctrl C or click the Copy button in the Clipboard category on the Home Ribbon 6 Click cell C3 7 Press Ctrl V or click the Paste button in the Clipboard category on the Home Ribbon 8 If you see a strange moving line around cell C2 press the ESC key Cell C3 should be the active cell but if it is not just click it once Look at the Formula Bar The contents of cell C3 are B3 2 and not the B2 2 that you copied Did you see a moving line around a cell That line s called a marquee It s a reminder that you are in the middle of a cut or copy operation and the mar quee goes around the cut or copied data What happened Excel in its wisdom assumed that if a formula in cell C2 ref erences the cell B2 one cell to the left then the same formula put into cell C3 is supposed to reference cell B3 also one cell to the left When copying formulas in Excel relative addressing is usually what you want That s why it is the default behavior Sometimes you do not w
19. efer ence ranges You can reference cells and ranges on other worksheets You can reference cells and ranges in other workbooks Formulas and functions are at their most useful when using references so you need to understand them And if that isn t enough to stir the pot you can use three types of cell refer ences relative absolute and mixed Okay one step at a time here Try out a formula that uses a range Formulas that use ranges often have a function in the formula so use the SUM function here Enter some numbers in many cells going down one column Click in another cell where you want the result to appear Enter SUM to start the function A V N Click the first cell that has an entered value hold the left mouse button down and drag the mouse pointer over all the cells that have values 5 Release the mouse button The range address appears where the formula and function are being entered 6 Enter a 7 Press Enter 8 Give yourself a pat on the back Wherever you drag the mouse to enter the range address into a function you can also just type in the address of the range if you know what it is Excel is dynamic when it comes to cell addresses If you have a cell with a for mula that references a different cell s address and you copy the formula from the first cell to another cell the address of the reference inside the formula changes Excel updates the reference inside the formula to match th
20. errors in detail Using Functions in Formulas Functions are like little utility programs that do a single thing For example the SUM function sums up numbers the COUNT function counts and the AVERAGE function calculates an average There are functions to handle many different needs working with numbers working with text working with dates and times working with finance and so on Functions can be combined and nested one goes inside another Functions return a value and this value can be combined with the results of another function or formula The possibilities are nearly endless But functions do not exist on their own They are always a part of a formula Now that can mean that the formula is made up completely of the function or that the formula combines the function with other functions data operators or references But functions must follow the formula golden rule Start with the equal sign Look at some examples Function Formula Result SUM A1 A5 Returns the sum of the values in the range A1 A5 This is an example of a function serv ing as the whole formula SUM A1 A5 B5 Returns the sum of the values in the range A1 A5 divided by the value in cell B5 This is an example of mixing a function s result with other data N Figure 1 20 Entering the AVERAGE function SUM A1 A5 AVERAGE B1 B5 Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals 29 Returns the sum of the range A1 A5 adde
21. eting that each new release of Office has a slightly different look The folks at Microsoft went whole hog with Office 2007 Imagine this no menus or toolbars These have been such staples of Windows applications that only something amazing could upstage them Without further ado we present the Ribbon The Ribbon sits at the top of the application where menus used to unfold and toolbars made their home A few items do appear as menu headers along the top of the Excel screen but they actually work more like tabs Click them and no menus appear Instead the Ribbon presents the items that are related to the clicked header Figure 1 5 shows the top part of the screen in which the Ribbon displays the items that appear when you click the Formulas header In the figure the Ribbon is set to show formula based methods Along the left functions are categorized One of the categories is opened to show how you can access a particular function 11 2 Part I Putting the Fun in Functions Clicking a category to access Formula Ribbon particular function Figure 1 5 Getting to know the Ribbon Also known as Analysis ToolPal These categories are along the bottom of the Formulas Ribbon Y Function Library This includes the Function Wizard the AutoSum fea ture and the categorized functions vy Named Cells These features manage named areas In fact the new Name Manager is here a brand new Excel 2007
22. in Chapter 2 Arguing with a function Memorizing the arguments that every function takes would be a daunting task We can only think that if you could pull that off you could be on televi sion But back to reality you don t have to memorize them because Excel helps you select what function to use and then tells you which arguments are needed Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals SSE Figure 1 21 Using the Insert Function dialog box e 31 Figure 1 21 shows the Insert Function dialog box This great helper is accessed by clicking the Function Wizard button on the Formulas Ribbon The dialog box is where you select a function to use f TSE RESO TCLaT Search for a function Type a briaf dascaption of what you want to do and then cick Go Or select a category Most Recently Used Select a function S TRLE or FALSE EXACT Is case senskive Help on this Function The dialog box contains a listing of all available functions and there are a lot of them So to make matters easier the dialog box gives you a way to search for a function by a keyword or you can filter the list of functions by category If you know which category a function belongs in you can click the function category button in the Formulas Ribbon and select the function from the list Try it out Here s an example of how to use the Insert Function dialog box to multiply together a few numbers
23. just accept a returned answer After all Excel is so smart Right Wrong Like all computer programs Excel can only do what it is told If you tell it to calculate an incorrect but struc turally valid formula it will do so So watch your p s and q s Er rather your parentheses and mathematical operators when building formulas 27 Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals C ea Figure 1 19 Getting a message from Excel a The second type of error is when there is a mistake in the formula or in the data the formula uses that prevents Excel from calculating the result Excel makes your life easier by telling you when such an error occurs To be pre cise it does one of the following 1 Excel displays a message when you attempt to enter a formula that is not constructed correctly 1 Excel returns an error message in the cell when there is something wrong with the result of the calculation First let s see what happened when we tried to finish entering a formula that had the wrong number of parentheses Figure 1 19 shows this Tenor gt ee Ea sumiessesis D L E G J lt umber af Orare 1 Janaary 5 February March April Moy June August September October Nowambar December sco maton J Tee To coe thes message and camet the toma yours cks No To accept ths 20 Ce th sU om EAAS Excel finds an uneven number of open and closed pare
24. lec tions found under the File menu in earlier versions of Excel Figure 1 1 shows the new look for accessing basic functions such as opening saving printing and closing your Excel files not to mention a number of other nifty functions to boot iz Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals w Figure 1 2 3 Looking at a workbook z and worksheets Excel 2007 files have the xlsx extension Older version Excel files have the xls extension When Excel starts up it displays a blank workbook ready for use If at any time you need another new workbook click the Microsoft Office button and click on New You will be presented with a plateful of templates including a blank workbook That s the baby you want so give it a click to select it and then click the Create button A new workbook will open When you have more than one workbook open you pick the one you want to work on by selecting it in the Windows Taskbar A worksheet is where your data actually goes A workbook contains at least one worksheet If you didn t have at least one where would you put the data Figure 1 2 shows an open workbook that has three sheets Sheet1 Sheet2 and Sheet3 You can see these on the worksheet tabs near the bottom left of the screen At any given moment one worksheet is always on top In Figure 1 2 Sheet1 is on top Another way of saying this is that Sheet1 is the active worksheet There is always
25. ng entry box that starts in the middle of the bar When you enter a formula into this box you then can click the little check mark button to finish the entry The check mark button is only visible when you are entering a formula Pressing the Enter key also completes your entry clicking the X cancels the entry An alternative is to enter a formula directly into a cell The Formula Box displays the formula as itis being entered into the cell When you want to see just the contents of a cell that has a for mula make that cell active and look at its con tents in the Formula Box Cells that have formulas do not normally display the formula but instead display the result of the formula When you want to see the actual formula the Formula Box is the place to do it The Name Box on the left side of the Formula Bar is used to select named areas in the workbook This is addressed further in the material You find cells at the intersection of rows and columns Cell A1 is the cell at the intersection of column A and row 1 A1 is the cell s address There is always an active cell that is a cell in which any entry would go into should you start typing The active cell has a border around it Also the contents of the active cell are seen in the Formula Box MBER When we speak of or reference cell we are referring to its address The address is the intersection of a column and row To talk about cell D20 means to talk about the
26. nt to just store your data some where you can use Excel or get a database program instead In this book we 8 Part Putting the Fun in Functions show you how to build formulas and how to use the dozens of built in func tions that Excel provides That s where the real power of Excel is making sense of your data Don t fret that this is a challenge and that you may make mistakes We did when we were ramping up Besides Excel is very forgiving It won t crash on you Excel usually tells you when you made a mistake and sometimes it even helps you to correct it How many programs do that But first the basics This first chapter gives you the springboard you need to use the rest of the book We wish books like this were around when we were introduced to com puters We had to stumble through a lot of this Working with Excel Fundamentals Ce Figure 1 1 Seeing how to use basic Excel program functions PCS Before you can write any formulas or crunch any numbers you have to know where the data goes And how to find it again We wouldn t want your data to get lost Knowing how worksheets store your data and present it is critical to your analysis efforts Understanding workbooks and worksheets A workbook is the same as a file Excel opens and closes workbooks just as a word processor program opens and closes documents Click the Microsoft Office button found at the upper left of your Excel screen to view the se
27. ntheses Therefore the formula cannot work it does not make sense mathematically and Excel tells you so Watch for these messages they often offer a solution On the other side of the fence are errors in returned values If you got this far then the formula s syntax passed muster but something went awry nonethe less Possible errors are vy Attempting to perform a mathematical operation on text vy Attempting to divide a number by 0 a mathematical no no 1 Trying to reference a nonexistent cell range worksheet or workbook Entering the wrong type of information into an argument function This is by no means an exhaustive list of possible error conditions but you get the idea So what does Excel do about it There are a handful of errors that Excel places into the cell with the problem formula 28 Part Putting the Fun in Functions Error Type When It Happens DIV 0 When you re trying to divide by 0 N A When a formula or a function inside a formula cannot find the referenced data NAME When text in a formula is not recognized NULL When a space was used instead of a comma in for mulas that reference multiple ranges a comma is necessary to separate range references NUM When a formula has numeric data that is invalid for the operation type REF When a reference is invalid VALUE When the wrong type of operand or function argu ment is used Chapter 4 discusses catching and handling formula
28. olon in the middle And that s what it is A range address starts with the address of the cell in the upper left of the range then has a colon and then ends with the address of the cell in the lower right Lal A B c D CLIENT NAME OF PET TYPEOFPET DATE OF LAST VISIT One more detail about ranges you can give them a name This is a great feature because you can think about a range in terms of what it is used for instead of what its address is Also if we did not take the extra step to assign a name the range would be gone as soon as we clicked anywhere on the worksheet When a range is given a name you can repeatedly use the range by using its name Say you have a list of clients on a worksheet What s easier thinking of exactly which cells are occupied or thinking that there is your list of clients 16 Part Putting the Fun in Functions PCS Figure 1 9 Adding a name to the workbook PCS Throughout this book we use areas made of cell addresses and ranges which have been given names It s time to get your feet wet creating a named area Here s what you do 1 Position the mouse pointer over a cell click and hold the left mouse button down and drag the pointer around 2 Release the mouse button when done You ve select an area of the worksheet 3 Click Name a Range in the Named Cells category on the Formulas Ribbon The New Name dialog box appears Figure 1 9 shows you how it looks
29. ou can search on a keyword or browse through the Help Table of Contents Later on when you are working with Excel functions you can get help on specific functions directly by click ing the Help with This Function link in the Insert Function dialog box Chapter 2 covers the Insert Function dialog box in detail Gaining the Upper Hand on Formulas Okay time to get to the nitty gritty of what Excel is all about Sure you can just enter data and leave it as is and even generate some pretty charts from it But getting answers from your data or creating a summary of your data or applying what if tests all of this takes formulas 20 Part Putting the Fun in Functions Xe we MBER EN To be specific a formula in Excel calculates something or returns some result based on data in the worksheet A formula is placed in cells and must start with an equal sign to tell Excel that it is a formula and not data Sounds simple and it is All formulas should start with an equal sign An alternative is to start a formula with a plus sign This keeps Excel compatible with Lotus 1 2 3 Look at some very basic formulas Table 1 1 shows a few formulas and tells you what they do We use the word return to refer to what displays after a formula or function does its thing So to say the formula returns a 7 is the same as saying the for mula calculated the answer to be 7 Table 1 1 Basic Formulas Formula What It Does
30. rayss Recentty Ured 4 Tet f AP Ute In Fee lt 2trace Dependents pr SS Lal 7 FA Amna Gf Date a Tine Ir meae MA Crestetrom Selection JZ Renevesmows wrnn OMS D Functize Ubrany Nemes Celt Fomu Audhieg U2 bos F495 Al Fe ee T NAME OF PET TYPE OF PET DATE OF LAST VISIT 3 Caryl Whaley ows 722008 4 Uae Kennakse vA PODS 5 Puris Coste 1205 2005 E Steven Trailer 12 6 2008 7 doin Gzuder 1202005 B Aw Jainaky 42 2 2005 D Tali Evert CEES l 10 Alma Prust Freud King 1017 2008 41 Nal iaces halzen VT 22 Mayis Palman Tiga 1998 2005 13 Aurora McCracecen Pretty Girl 11 16 2008 4 Hugh astiz Ninny 1A 45 Saji Di Basi 4901472005 16 Greg Satin Eaby 16 200 vz Colter s 8 Kamie Vambrack Faxar 10 Faris Alsen 20 Trissa Hil Nala sus m Abissonno Paranio 10302095 23 M Reosensentz Litle LI 10 21 6 is Cre ira wie 25 Russell Teplatt 10252005 10 20 2008 10112005 means Figure 1 10 gt gt o Alma tann Using the 2 tye Emi 10102095 Maie Shanka 1002005 Daidisyon Cumess Moms ELJ 29 30 Name Box 3 33 u 9 26 2005 to fin the Rene Rytarczyk Moms 9202008 zy 35 Victor Havances Faxar SOURS 35 Curtiss Daddecs Ruya 9 97 2008 named area 37 Denie Booth Foly 9 13 2008 naraj ents und Pets N a E o O Ds exalts Home Insert Page Layout Formulas Data Review view Developer Add Ins a P ia 4 8l x X Line diy Area A
31. s are put together If a formula is constructed the wrong way it either returns an incorrect result or an error 26 Part Putting the Fun in Functions Eas Figure 1 18 Populating cells with a formula by using the fill handle 1 Number of Orders 1 January 5 February 882 115 793 March 960 150 907 April wen u wi Muy 1945 175 4015 June 1267 199 1259 September 994 122 851 1967 J October 921 ao 741 1742 4 Nowambsar tay 55 fh 1448 15 December 616 28 614 12 4 6 moy o gt JSC E jam Two types of errors can occur in formulas In one type Excel can calculate the formula but the result is wrong In the other type Excel is not able to calculate the formula Check out both of these A formula can work and still produce an incorrect result Excel does not report an error because there is no error for it to find Often this is the result of not using parentheses properly in the formula Take a look at some examples Formula Result 7 5 20 25 5 112 S T 405 820 4 25 7 5 245 7 5 20 25 5 52 7 5 20 25 5 26 4 All of these are valid formulas but the placement of parentheses makes a dif ference in the outcome You must take into account the order of mathemati cal operators when writing formulas The order is 1 Parentheses 2 Exponents 3 Multiplication and division 4 Addition and subtraction This is a key point of formulas It is easy to
32. se pi 4 Iita Clase 5 1105 97 5 1118 37 CELI ha number ot times tha closing price exceeded the monthly average 3 5 6 9 20 23 25 26 29 30 AL ace rail Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals 35 MBER we amp The COUNTIF function counts the number of cells in a range that meet a condition The condition in this case is that any single value in the range isg reater than gt the average of the range The formula in cell D7 is COUNTIF B5 B25 gt amp AVERAGE B5 B25 The AVERAGE function ise valuated first and then the COUNTIF function is evaluated using the returned value from the nested function used as an argument Nested functions are best entered directly The Insert Function dialog box does not make it easy to enter a nested function Try one out In this exam ple you use the AVERAGE function to find the average of the largest values from two sets of numbers The nested function in this example is MAX You enter the MAX function twice within the AVERAGE function 1 2 3 4 5 6 Enter a few different numbers in one column Enter a few different numbers in a different column Click an empty cell where you want the result to appear Enter AVERAGE to start the function entry Enter MAX Click the first cell in the second set of numbers press the mouse button and drag over all the cells of the first set The address of this range enters into
33. to just type the function directly into the cell Nesting functions Nesting is something a bird does isn t it Well a bird expert would know the answer to that one but we do know how to nest Excel functions A nested function is tucked inside another function as one of its arguments Nesting functions let you return results you would have a hard time getting to other wise Nested functions are used in examples in various places in the book The COUNTIF AVERAGE and MAX functions are discussed in Chapter 9 34 Part I Putting the Fun in Functions PCs Figure 1 25 Math was never this easy PC air Figure 1 26 Nesting functions oe Chaptert Compatinitty Mode Microsc Eres erat 3 fi E autosun X E Recenti Used Functio Wizard Finencis Figure 1 26 shows the daily closing price for the S amp P 500 for the month of September 2004 A possible analysis is to see how many times the closing price was higher than the average for the month Therefore the average needs to be calculated first before you can compare any single price By embedding the AVERAGE function inside another function the average is first calculated When a function is nested inside another the inner function is calculated first Then that result is used as an argument for the outer function 0 fo COUNTIF ES 825 gt amp AVERAGE 85 E25 A 3 Q 1 1 J L M 5 1 SAP 500 Daily Clo
34. value in cell B2 is 05 Cell B7 is formatted as currency The currency format displays a nega tive value in parentheses This is just one of the formatting options for cur rency Chapter 5 explains further about formatting currency i 1 Princips 2 Annsa Imerezt Rane k Number at Penada 24 4 Monthly Payment gt 15553 07 4 J F Rey o gt jet aoe E eh Besides selecting formatting on the Home Ribbon you can use the familiar in previous versions Format Cells dialog box This is the place to go for all your formatting needs beyond what s available on the toolbar You can even create custom formats You can display the Format Cells dialog box two ways Chapter 1 Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals 9 1 On the Home Ribbon click the drop down list from the Number cate gory and then click More 1 Right click any cell and select Format Cells from the pop up menu Figure 1 13 shows the Format Cells dialog box So many settings are there it can make your head spin We discuss this dialog box and formatting more extensively in Chapter 5 prt Dells ti m Figure 1 13 Using the Format Cells dialog box for advanced formatting options kA Getting help Excel is complex you can t deny that And lucky for all of us help is just a key press away Yes literally one key press just press the F1 key Try it now This starts up the Help system From there y
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