Range:

A range in Excel is a collection of two or more cells. This chapter gives an overview of some very
important range operations.

Cell, Row, Column

Let's start by selecting a cell, row and column.

1. To select cell C3, click on the box at the intersection of column C and row 3.

2. To select column C, click on the column C header.

3. To select row 3, click on the row 3 header.

Range Examples

A range is a collection of two or more cells.

1. To select the range B2:C4, click on cell B2 and drag it to cell C4.

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2. To select a range of individual cells, hold down CTRL and click on each cell that you want to include in
the range.

Fill a Range

To fill a range, execute the following steps.

1a. Enter the value 2 into cell B2.

1b. Select cell B2, click on the lower right corner of cell B2 and drag it down to cell B8.

Result:

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This dragging technique is very important and you will use it very often in Excel. Here's another example.

2a. Enter the value 2 into cell B2 and the value 4 into cell B3.

2b. Select cell B2 and cell B3, click on the lower right corner of this range and drag it down.

Excel automatically fills the range based on the pattern of the first two values. That's pretty cool huh!?
Here's another example.

3a. Enter the date 6/13/2016 into cell B2 and the date 6/16/2016 into cell B3.

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3b. Select cell B2 and cell B3, click on the lower right corner of this range and drag it down.

The sky is the limit!

Move a Range

To move a range, execute the following steps.

1. Select a range and click on the border of the range.

2. Drag the range to its new location.

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Copy/Paste a Range

To copy and paste a range, execute the following steps.

1. Select the range, right click, and then click Copy (or press CTRL + c).

2. Select the cell where you want the first cell of the range to appear, right click, and then click Paste
under 'Paste Options:' (or press CTRL + v).

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Insert Row, Column

To insert a row between the values 20 and 40 below, execute the following steps.

1. Select row 3.

2. Right click, and then click Insert.

Result:

The rows below the new row are shifted down. In a similar way, you can insert a column.

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Cell References
Cell references in Excel are very important. Understand the difference between relative, absolute and
mixed reference, and you are on your way to success.

Relative Reference

By default, Excel uses relative reference. See the formula in cell D2 below. Cell D2 references (points to)
cell B2 and cell C2. Both references are relative.

1. Select cell D2, click on the lower right corner of cell D2 and drag it down to cell D5.

Cell D3 references cell B3 and cell C3. Cell D4 references cell B4 and cell C4. Cell D5 references cell B5
and cell C5. In other words: each cell references its two neighbors on the left.

Absolute Reference

See the formula in cell E3 below.

1. To create an absolute reference to cell H3, place a $ symbol in front of the column letter and row
number ($H$3) in the formula of cell E3.

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2. Now we can quickly drag this formula to the other cells.

The reference to cell H3 is fixed (when we drag the formula down and across). As a result, the correct
lengths and widths in inches are calculated.

Mixed Reference

Sometimes we need a combination of relative and absolute reference (mixed reference).

1. See the formula in cell F2 below.

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2. We want to copy this formula to the other cells quickly. Drag cell F2 across one cell, and look at the
formula in cell G2.

Do you see what happens? The reference to the price should be a fixed reference to column B. Solution:
place a $ symbol in front of the column letter ($B2) in the formula of cell F2. In a similar way, when we
drag cell F2 down, the reference to the reduction should be a fixed reference to row 6. Solution: place a
$ symbol in front of the row number (B$6) in the formula of cell F2.

Result:

Note: we don't place a $ symbol in front of the row number of $B2 (this way we allow the reference to
change from $B2 (Jeans) to $B3 (Shirts) when we drag the formula down). In a similar way, we don't
place a $ symbol in front of the column letter of B$6 (this way we allow the reference to change from
B$6 (Jan) to C$6 (Feb) and D$6 (Mar) when we drag the formula across).

3. Now we can quickly drag this formula to the other cells.

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Find and Replace:
Create a range and calculate average using average formula.

1. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select.

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2. Click Find.

The 'Find and Replace' dialog box appears.

3. Type the text you want to find. For example, type Ferrari.

4. Click 'Find Next'.

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Excel selects the first occurrence.

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5. Click 'Find Next' to select the second occurrence.

6. To get a list of all the occurrences, click 'Find All'.

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Replace

To quickly find specific text and replace it with other text, execute the following steps.

1. On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click Find & Select.

2. Click Replace.

The 'Find and Replace' dialog box appears (with the Replace tab selected).

3. Type the text you want to find (Veneno) and replace it with (Diablo).

4. Click 'Find Next'.

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Excel selects the first occurrence. No replacement has been made yet.

5. Click 'Replace' to make a single replacement.

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Note: use 'Replace All' to replace all occurrences.

Sort:
Create a Range as mentioned.

Click any cell in the column you want to sort.

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You can sort your Excel data on one column or multiple columns. You can sort in ascending or
descending order.

One Column

To sort on one column, execute the following steps.

1. Click any cell in the column you want to sort.

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2. To sort in ascending order, on the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click AZ.

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Result:

Note: to sort in descending order, click ZA.

Multiple Columns

To sort on multiple columns, execute the following steps.

1. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Sort.

The Sort dialog box appears.

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2. Select Last Name from the 'Sort by' drop-down list.

3. Click on Add Level.

4. Select Sales from the 'Then by' drop-down list.

5. Click OK.

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Result. Records are sorted by Last Name first and Sales second.

Filter:
Create a range

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1. Click any single cell inside a data set.

2. On the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Filter.

Arrows in the column headers appear.

3. Click the arrow next to Country.

4. Click on Select All to clear all the check boxes, and click the check box next to USA.

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5. Click OK.

Result. Excel only displays the sales in the USA.

6. Click the arrow next to Quarter.

7. Click on Select All to clear all the check boxes, and click the check box next to Qtr 4.

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8. Click OK.

Result. Excel only displays the sales in the USA in Qtr 4.

9. To remove the filter, on the Data tab, in the Sort & Filter group, click Clear. To remove the
filter and the arrows, click Filter.

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Logical Functions
If Function

The IF function checks whether a condition is met, and returns one value if TRUE and another
value if FALSE.

1. Select cell C1 and enter the following function.

The IF function returns Correct because the value in cell A1 is higher than 10.

And Function

The AND Function returns TRUE if all conditions are true and returns FALSE if any of the
conditions are false.

1. Select cell D1 and enter the following formula.

The AND function returns FALSE because the value in cell B1 is not higher than 5. As a result
the IF function returns Incorrect.

Or Function

The OR function returns TRUE if any of the conditions are TRUE and returns FALSE if all
conditions are false.

1. Select cell E1 and enter the following formula.

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The OR function returns TRUE because the value in cell A1 is higher than 10. As a result the IF
function returns Correct.

General note: the AND and OR function can check up to 255 conditions.

Nested If
The IF function in Excel can be nested, when you have multiple conditions to meet. The
FALSE value is being replaced by another IF function to make a further test.

1a. If cell A1 equals 1, the formula returns Bad.

1b. If cell A1 equals 2, the formula returns Good.

1c. If cell A1 equals 3, the formula returns Excellent.

1d. If cell A1 equals another value, the formula returns No Valid Score.

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Here's another example.

2a. If cell A1 is less or equal to 10, the formula returns 350.

2b. If cell A1 is greater than 10 and less or equal to 20, the formula returns 700.

2c. If cell A1 is greater than 20 and less or equal to 30, the formula returns 1400.

2d. If cell A1 is greater than 30, the formula returns 2000.

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Note: to slightly change the boundaries, you might want to use "<" instead of "<=" in your own
formula.

Count and Sum Functions

The most used functions in Excel are the functions that count and sum. You can count and sum
based on one criteria or multiple criteria.

Count

To count the number of cells that contain numbers, use the COUNT function.

Countif

To count cells based on one criteria (for example, higher than 9), use the following COUNTIF
function.

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Countifs

To count cells based on multiple criteria (for example, green and higher than 9), use the
following COUNTIFS function.

Sum

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To sum a range of cells, use the SUM function.

Sumif

To sum cells based on one criteria (for example, higher than 9), use the following SUMIF
function (two arguments).

To sum cells based on one criteria (for example, green), use the following SUMIF function
(three arguments, last argument is the range to sum).

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Sumifs

To sum cells based on multiple criteria (for example, blue and green), use the following SUMIFS
function (first argument is the range to sum).

General note: in a similar way, you can use the AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIFS function to
average cells based on one or multiple criteria.

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Count Logical Values
Learn how to count the number of cells that contain logical values (TRUE and FALSE) in
Excel.

1. For example, to count the number of cells that contain TRUE.

2. For example, to count the number of cells that contain FALSE.

3. For example, to count the number of cells that contain TRUE or FALSE.

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Count Blank/Nonblank Cells
 

This example shows you how to count the number of blank and nonblank cells in Excel.

1. The COUNTBLANK function counts the number of blank cells.

2. The COUNTA function counts the number of nonblank cells. COUNTA stands for count all.

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Count Text Occurrences

This example teaches you how to count the number of occurrences of text in a range.

1. For example, to count the number of cells that contain exactly star.

2. For example, to count the number of cells that contain exactly star + 1 character. A question
mark (?) matches exactly one character.

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3. For example, to count the number of cells that contain exactly star + a series of zero or more
characters. An asterisk (*) matches a series of zero or more characters.

4. For example, to count the number of cells that contain star in any way. No matter what is
before or after star, this function finds all the cells that contain star in any way.

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5. For example, to count the number of cells that contain text.

Average

To calculate the average of a range of cells, use the AVERAGE function.

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Averageif

To average cells based on one criteria, use the AVERAGEIF function. For example, to calculate
the average excluding zeros.

Note: <> means not equal to. The AVERAGEIF function is similar to the SUMIF function.

Min

To find the minimum value, use the MIN function.

Max

To find the maximum value, use the MAX function.

Large

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To find the third largest number, use the following LARGE function.

Check:

Small

To find the second smallest number, use the following SMALL function.

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