PM2 - Management Reporting – IT Office Tools (MS Excel)

Chapter - 7
Working with Functions:
Work with Ranges:
Active Cell:
When you click in a cell it becomes the active cell. It is also the selected cell because it is
active. The address of the active cell and its contents are shown in the address bar above
the column headings in the worksheet.

Range:
A range is made up of one or more selected cells. A range is addressed using the cell
address at the top left and the cell address at the bottom right and is written with the two
separated by a colon (:). In the example shown below, the range would be written as
A2:A7. Note also that in most circumstances the active cell will be somewhere in the range.

A contiguous range is any group of selected cells that form either a square or a rectangle. A
single cell that is selected is also considered to be a range. Ranges can be selected using the
mouse, the keyboard or a combination of the two. Once selected, you can use the range
for data input, apply formatting, or copy the cells as required.

Non-Contiguous Range:
A range can be made up of non-adjacent cells and ranges – these types of ranges are
known as non-contiguous ranges. They are addressed as normal ranges separated by
commas. For example, the range shown to the right would be written as A2:A7, B2:B7,
C2:C7.

Excel allows you to select more than one range at a time. When this is done the selected
ranges are known as non-contiguous ranges because they are not joined together. To
select non-contiguous ranges, select the first range in the usual way, then hold down Ctrl

Key while selecting the remaining ranges.

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Range Calculations:
A useful feature of working with ranges is the ability to see informal calculations based on
the contents of the cells. Providing that the appropriate calculations have been switched
on, they will appear in the status bar whenever a range in the worksheet is selected.

Use Specialized Functions:

The below specialized functions can be used for multiple purposes as per requirement.

COUNT Returns the number of cells that contain a numeric value.

COUNTA Returns the number of nonblank cells.
COUNTBLANK Returns the number of blank cells.
COUNTIF Returns the number of cells that meet a specified criterion.
COUNTIFS Returns the number of cells that meet multiple criteria.
SUM Returns the sum of its arguments.
SUMIF Returns the sum of cells that meet a specified criterion.
SUMIFS Returns the sum of cells that meet multiple criteria.
SUBTOTAL When used with a first argument of 2, 3, 102, or 103, returns a count of
cells that comprise a subtotal; when used with a first argument of 9 or
109, returns the sum of cells that comprise a subtotal.
SUMPRODUCT Multiplies corresponding cells in two or more ranges and returns the
sum of those products.
AVERAGEIF Returns the average for the cells specified by a given criterion
AVERAGEIFS Returns the average for the cells specified by multiple criteria
CHOOSE Returns a specific value from a list of values supplied as arguments.
INDIRECT Returns the reference specified by a text string.
RANK Returns the rank of a number in a list of numbers.
SMALL Returns the k-th smallest value in a data set.
LARGE Returns the k-th largest value in a data set.
IFERROR If the first argument returns an error, the second argument is evaluated
and returned. If the first argument does not return an error, then it is
evaluated and returned.
OFFSET Returns a reference to a range that is a specified number of rows and
columns from a cell or range of cells.

Work with Logical Functions:

The logical functions allow you to perform logical tests and build logical expressions based
on the arguments you provide. You can test conditions and proceed according to the result.

AND Will return the logical value true if all of the arguments you specify are true, and
will return a logical value of false otherwise.
FALSE Will return the logical value false.
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IF Will test if a condition that you set is true, and return a specified value if it is,
and another specified value if it isn’t.
NOT Will change logical values from true to false or false to true (not true is false, and
not false is true).
OR Will return a logical value of true if any of the arguments are true and a value of
false if both or all arguments are false.
TRUE Returns the logical value of true.

Work with Date & Time Functions:

These functions provide representations and conversion options for dates and times.

DAY Returns the number of the day from 1 to 31.

DAYS360 Calculates the number of days between two dates based on 360 day
years.
HOUR Gives the hour as a number from 0 to 23.
MINUTE Gives the minute as a number from 0 to 59.
MONTH Gives the month as a number from 1 to 12.
NOW Gives the current date and time.
SECOND Gives the second as a number from 0 to 59.
TIME Converts hours minutes and seconds to an Excel serial number time.
TODAY Provides the current date.
WEEKDAY Gives the day as a number from one to seven.
YEAR Gives the year of a serial number date, from 1900 to 9999.

Work with Text Functions:

Text functions help you manipulate individual characters and strings of characters that are
entered in a worksheet as text. Some useful text functions are:

CLEAN Removes all characters that cannot be printed from the text.
CONCATENATE Joins together strings of text into one larger string.
DOLLAR Converts a number to currency formatted text.
EXACT Will test two text strings to see if they are exactly the same.
FIND Will find the starting location of a string of characters within a
larger string.
LEFT Returns a specified number of characters from the start (left) of a
string.
LEN Gives the number of characters in a text string.
LOWER Converts any uppercase letters in a string to lowercase.
REPLACE Will replace a part of a string with another string.
RIGHT Will give you the specified number of characters from the end or
right of a string.
T Tests if a cell value is text or not.
TEXT Converts a value to number formatted text.
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TRIM Removes all extra spaces from a text string (spaces between words
will stay).
UPPER Converts a text string to uppercase.