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MS Excel - Formulas and Functions – By Saif Khan

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Formulas and Functions

In MS Excel you can do calculations in seconds that will take you hours to do using a
calculator. Formulas are used to do calculations. Formulas in a spreadsheet are
displayed in the formula bar when the cell they are in is selected. A formula always
begins with an equal sign (=).

The following characters are used as operators in calculations:

+ for addition
- for subtraction
/ for division
* for multiplication
% for calculation of percentages

Calculations are carried out in the following sequence:

1. Calculations in brackets
2. Percent
3. Multiplication and division (from left to right)
4. Addition and subtraction (from left to right)

Display formats for different types of data

MS Excel enables you to work with many different types of data, for example:

• text, e.g. “Income”

• plain numbers, e.g. 5798
• numbers with decimal places, e.g. 34.98
• currency, e.g. R50.34
• data, e.g. 6 August 2020
• time, e.g. 15:00
• percentages, e.g. 67%

You need to specify the type of data that is in the cells of a spreadsheet so that the
data is displayed in the correct format, for example, if cells contains data that is in
currency, then the data must be displayed with two decimal places.

Formatting figures

The default format is General Number format. To control the manner in which
figures are displayed, use one of the following icons on the Home ribbon: NB!
Always select the appropriate cell range before you format the figures.

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Cell references

NB Always use cell references instead of values (numbers) where possible.

A cell range refers to the number of cells that forms a rectangular block on the
worksheet. It is indicated by two diagonally opposite cell addresses, separated by a
colon (:). For example: C6:C10 refers to the cells C6, C7, C8, C9 and C10. If a
semicolon is used, it refers to non-adjacent cells. For example D5;D9 refers only to
D5 and D9.

Basic calculations

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Relative cell references

Relative cell references enable you to apply a formula pattern to a new cell. If you
use relative cell references you can copy a formula to a new cell and MS Excel will
automatically update the cell reference for you.

To copy a formula to another cell you click on the cell that contains the formula you
want to copy. Hover the mouse pointer over the black square in the bottom righthand
corner of the cell. When the mouse pointer changes into a cross shape, click and
drag the box to select the cells that you want to copy the formula to. Release the
mouse button and the formula pattern will be copied to all the cells that you selected.

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Exercise

1. Retrieve the spreadsheet PRICE from your folder.

2. Bold the column headings.

3. Insert formulas where the A, B and C appear. Do not type the A, B, C.

A VAT = 15% of the Cost Price. = B3*15%
B Selling Price = Cost Price + VAT = B3+C3
C TOTAL = SUM of each column =SUM(B3:B7)

4. Copy the formulas to the other cells as indicated with the arrows.

5. Display all figures as currency with 2 decimal places.

6. Save the spreadsheet as PRICE2 in your own folder.

A B C D
1 PRICELIST: AUGUST 2020
COST PRICE VAT SELLING
Bold
2 15% PRICE
3 Product 1 R50.00 A B
4 Product 2 R100.00
5 Product 3 R150.00
6 Product 4 R200.00
7 Product 5 R250.00
8 Product 6 R300.00
9 TOTAL C

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