3.

DATA ANALYSIS

Working with MS Excel

Microsoft Office Excel provides powerful tools and features that a user can use to analyze,
share and manage data with ease. As a spreadsheet it is widely used for data analysis.
A spreadsheet is a large sheet of paper which contains rows and columns. The intersection
of rows and columns is termed as a ‘cell’. To enable us to explore massive amounts of data in
worksheets, MS Excel 2007 version supports up to 1 million rows and 16 thousand columns per
worksheet. MS Excel is used to prepare databases, to make charts and diagrams and for doing
various mathematical and statistical operations. It s to be noted that any mathematical
operation should begin with the sign ‘=’ or ‘+’ under Excel.

Starting Excel
We can start Excel from various options.
• From Microsoft Windows applications, select Microsoft Excel, click start – Programs -
Microsoft Excel
• Double click the MS Excel icon from the desktop

Work Books
A file in Microsoft Excel is called a work book. A work book is organized in various
worksheets. Thus a work book is a collection of work sheet used in a single file.

Worksheet
A worksheet is a table like document containing rows and columns with data and formula.
When MS Excel is opened, it starts with three worksheets.
MS Excel can handle with the following calculation and logical operators.

Calculation operators
Operators specify the type of calculation that we want to perform on the elements of a
formula. There are four different types of calculation operators are used. They are: arithmetic,
comparison, text concatenation (link together) and reference.

Arithmetic operators

Comparison operators
We can compare two values with the following operators. When two values are compared
by using these operators, the result is a logical value either TRUE or FALSE.

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Text concatenation operator
Use the ampersand (&) to join, or concatenate, one or more text strings to produce a single
piece of text.
Example:- (A1&B1)

Reference operators
Combine ranges of cells for calculations with the following operators

To create a formula
=5*2+3
=5*(2+3)
To create formula with functions
=SUM(A1:A10) adds the numbers from A1 to A10
=AVERAGE(B1:B10) averages all numbers in the range B1 to B10
=LOG(10) logarithm of 10

Logical operations
Condition ‘IF’
“IF” command is used to check whether a condition is met and returns one value if TRUE and
another value if FALSE
example:- =IF(A1>1.4,”PASSED”,”FAILED”) If the value of A1 is greater than 1.4 it will display
as “PASSED” or display as “FAILED”.
MS Excel is also widely used to create various types of diagrams and graphs such as bar
diagrams, pie diagram, line chart, area chart, etc.

Excel tool bars

The major tool bars in MS Excel are The micro soft office button, the ribbon, the title bar,
quick access tool bar, the cell address bar, formula bar and scroll bar. These tool bars helps for
better editing and modification of the worksheet.

Application of MS Excel in Business & Economics

MS Excel has wide applications in Business & Economics. Business & Economics is a
social science which deals with human wants and their satisfaction. The theories of economics
like producer’s behavior and consumer’s behavior can be better explained with the help of
computer software especially with MS Excel. For example, the theory of law of demand states the
inverse relationship between the price of the commodity and quantity demanded.
MS Excel can be effectively used to state the law of demand. After stating the law a
demand schedule and the demand curve can be inserted as cited below.

The Law of Demand

The law of demand states that “other things remains the same, there is inverse relationship
between the price of the commodity and quantity demanded”. That is when the price increases the
quantity demanded falls and when the price falls the quantity demanded increases. This is shown
in the following demand schedule and the demand curve.

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Demand Schedule

The above demand schedule and demand curve are drawn by using the excel facility.
Similarly, MS Excel provides facility to do mathematical and statistical operations. By using
these facilities various calculations can be done. Different types of charts can also be used for
better explaining the concepts and laws of economics.

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