Top 10 Most Useful Excel Function’s

Excel is a valuable tool, be sure to get the most out of it with these functions.

Excel is a valuable tool, as it can do a lot of math automatically, without the need for you
to do any work. You might be familiar with some of the basic formulas, like SUM and
AVERAGE, in that vein, our list will expand your knowledge of Excel with several
helpful functions.

SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE

SUM allows you to sum any number of columns or rows by selecting them or typing
them in, for example, =SUM(A1:A8) would sum all values in between A1 and A8 and so
on. COUNT counts the number of cells in an array that have a number value in them.
This would be useful for determining if someone has paid a bill, or in other database
situations, for example. AVERAGE does exactly what it sounds like, and takes the
average of the numbers you input.

IF STATEMENTS

IF statements are super useful in a lot of situations. This function allows you to output
text if a case is either valid or false. For example, you could write =IF(A1>A2, "GOOD",
"BAD"), where A1>A2 is the case, "GOOD" if the output is true and "BAD" is the output
if false. Or, =IF(C2>B2, ”Over Budget”, ”Within Budget”); where the IF function is
saying IF (C2 Is Greater Than B2, then return “Over Budget”, otherwise return “Within
Budget”).

SUMIF, COUNTIF, AVERAGEIF

These functions in Excel are a combination of the SUM, COUNT, AVERAGE functions
and IF statements. All of these functions are structured the same way, being
=FUNCTION(range, criteria, function range). So in SUM, you could input
=SUM(A1:A15, "GOOD", B1:B13). This would add B1 through B13 if the values of A1
through A15 all said GOOD. You may be starting to see how many of these formulas can
be applied on top of each other to create more complex spreadsheets and actions.

VLOOKUP

This stands for 'Vertical Lookup'. It is a function that makes Excel search for a certain
value in a column (the so-called 'table array'), in order to return a value from a different
column in the same row. The syntax for this would be as follows: =VLOOKUP(lookup
value, range, column number, false or true).

CONCATENATE

Concatenate is not only a fantastic word to say, but it is also a useful spreadsheet formula
if you need to combine data into one cell. Say for example you had a first and last name,
in cells A1 and A2 respectively. You would type =CONCATENATE(A1 , " " , B2),
which would combine the names into one cell, with the " " adding a space in between.

MAX & MIN

These functions are very simple, just type in the column or row of numbers you want to
search, following the function, and it will output the MAX or MIN depending on the
function you use. For example, =MAX(A1:A10) would output the maximum numerical
value in those rows.

AND

This is another logical function in Excel, and it will check if certain things are true or
false. For example, =AND(A1="GOOD", B2>10) would output TRUE if A1 is GOOD
and the value of B2 is greater than 10. You can have it check more values than two as
well, simply add them on with another comma.

PROPER

PROPER is useful when your database has a lot of oddly formatted text that looks
jumbled, for example, with capitalizations in the wrong place. If cell A1 said "intErestIng
EnginEEring is greaT", you could type =PROPER(A1) and it would output "Interesting
Engineering is Great".

CONDITIONAL FORMATTING

This isn't technically a formula, but it is an incredibly useful tool that is built right into
Excel. If you go Home –> Styles –> Conditional formatting, you can select many options
that will give outputs if certain things are true. You can do a lot of this with the formulas
mentioned here, but why not let Excel do the hard work.

INDEX + MATCH

This combination of functions allows you to work around VLOOKUP's annoying

limitations. By combining these functions like this, =INDEX(list of values,
MATCH(what you want to lookup, lookup column, sorting identifier)), you can search a
whole spreadsheet for values instead of being forced to only search the left-most column.

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Submitted To: Mam.Asma Zahra.