EXCEL

F O R M U L A S , F U N C T I O N S , A N D O T H E R U S E F U L F E AT U R E S

Thanks to Adam Voyton at Wilmington University for sharing his presentation

on the interwebs!
Agenda and Objectives:
• Introduce some Excel basics
• Showcase my favorites for summarizing a dataset
• Make a dataset itself appear prettier and easier for others
• Conditional formatting if we have time

After today’s course, I hope you will be able to more easily

summarize data for mass consumption, and that you will know
how to use Excel to mock-up logic that you may want to turn into
code for your customers.

BASIC FORMULAS &

FUNCTIONS
E XC E L 2 0 1 0
 BASIC MATH FUNCTIONS

• Math functions built into them. Of the most basic

operations are the standard multiply, divide, add
and subtract.
 MAX & MIN FUNCTIONS

• The Max function will return the

largest (max) value in the
selected range of cells. The Min
function will display the smallest
value in a selected set of cells.
COUNT FUNCTION & COUNTA

• The COUNT function will return the number of

entries (actually counts each cell that contains
NUMBER DATA) in the selected range of cells.

• COUNTA will return a count of non-blank results, not

just numerical values like count does
 IF FUNCTION

Definition: Tips:
• The IF function will • Until you are used to
check the logical writing them, test
condition of a them out on multiple
statement and return cells.
one value if true and a • There are multiple
different value if false. ways to write an IF
• The syntax is: statement to get the
=IF (condition, value- same result
if-true, value-if-false)
 EXCEL CELL REFERENCES WORTH REMEMBERING

• In Excel formulas, you can refer to

other cells either relatively or
absolutely. When you copy and paste
a formula in Excel, how you create
the references within the formula
Example Comment
tells Excel what to change in the
formula it pastes. The formula can =A1 Complete relative reference
either change the references relative =$A1 The column is absolute; the row is relative
to the cell where you're pasting it =A$1 The column is relative; the row is absolute
(relative reference), or it can always =$A$1 Complete absolute reference
refer to a specific cell. You can also
mix relative and absolute references
so that, when you move or copy a
formula, the row changes but the
column does not, or vice versa.
• Preceding the row and/or column
designators with a dollar sign ($)
specifies an absolute reference in
Excel.
DATA TOOLS
E XC E L 2 0 1 0
 CONCATENATE FUNCTION

• Concatenate
function - join
several strings into
one text string
• Note: The
concatenate function
does not
automatically leave
a blank space
between words or
other data.
 STRING FUNCTIONS

• LEFT, MID, RIGHT • TEXT and VALUE

– cut a string into – When
pieces recombining string
• Note: These do not pieces, use TEXT &
work well with VALUE as needed
numerical values.

TEXT STRING request_id.common.v1lkjdhfglkjasaj20151031103152

10 31 2015 10 31 52
42308.4388 VALUE
10/31/15 10:31:52 CUSTOM
10/31/15 10:31 TIME

See how we clicked in and accessed the linked file directly!

Test for yourself how the formatting works when you do this…
 TEXT TO COLUMNS

• Text to Columns – delineate via special

characters or fixed width
 REMOVING DUPLICATE VALUES

• Removing duplicate values – check for and

delete specific cells with duplicate values
 MORE STRING FUN

• FIND – is a sub-string present within a string?

• This is incredibly useful when looking for the presence of
a certain problem string within a bunch of values.
• For example: I want to see how many messages were
generated by a tool, or for a merchant IOG?
• MATCH – is a cell value present in an array?
• You’ll know when it’s useful to use match, it is pretty use-
case specific, but is a handy function when you need it.

TEXT STRING request_id.common.v1lkjdhfglkjasaj20151031103152

FIND --> v1 12
FIND --> v2 #VALUE!
 SUMIF AND COUNTIF

• Two of the most powerful functions I use –

These functions are the foundation of re-usable
Excel templates to analyze and highlight your
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 VLOOKUP

• Not hugely scalable, but wonderfully

valuable vlookup allows you to find a value, that
is related to some other value in a dataset. Does
not play well with duplicate lookup values,
generally requires a unique key as the lookup
value
• Example: Someone hands me a record_id, and wants to
know if it is in my dataset, and if so, what is the value
associated with it?
• =VLOOKUP( [Record_ID] , [BegArray:EndArray] ,
[ # columns from desired value location relative
to lookup key] , [ Exact match?] )
USEFUL FEATURES
E XC E L 2 0 1 0
INSTANTLY REVEAL FORMULAS AND GENERAL
NUMBER FORMAT OF ALL CELLS

• Show all formulas and the general

number format of cells
• Saves you time because you don’t
have to move the cell pointer to
check each formula one-by-one.
 COMPARING 2 OR MORE EXCEL SPREADSHEETS
SIMULTANEOUSLY

• You can open two instances of

Excel INSTEAD of multiple files
on top of each other in the
same Excel application.
• To do this, simply open Excel
by double clicking the icon on
your desktop and open the
first Excel file you want to use.
Minimize this window and
move it to the right screen.
Then go back to the desktop,
double click the Excel icon
once more, another separate
Excel window will open.
 SORTING
• Arranging data so it’s easy to analyze
• You can sort the data alphabetically, from highest
to lowest, or by a number of additional criteria
(such as cell color)
 FILTERS

• The Filter is a quick and easy way to find and

work with a subset of data in a range of cells.
 TABLES

• To make managing and analyzing a group of

related data easier, you can turn a range of cells
into a Microsoft Office Excel table (previously
known as an Excel list). A table typically contains
related data in a series of worksheet rows and
columns that have been formatted as a table. By
using the table features, you can then manage
the data in the table rows and columns
independently from the data in other rows and
columns on the worksheet.
 ELEMENTS OF AN EXCEL TABLE

• Header row    By default, a table has a header

row. Every table column has filtering enabled in
the header row so that you can filter or sort your
table data quickly.
 ELEMENTS OF AN EXCEL TABLE

• Banded rows    By default, alternate shading or

banding has been applied to the rows in a table
to better distinguish the data.
 ELEMENTS OF AN EXCEL TABLE

• Total row    You can

add a total row to your
table that provides
access to summary
functions (such as the
AVERAGE, COUNT, or
SUM function). A drop-
down list appears in
each total row cell so
that you can quickly
calculate the totals
that you want.
CREATING A TABLE
 FREEZE HEADERS

• To freeze a row in your worksheet, highlight the

row where you wish all rows before the
highlighted row to be frozen or locked, go to
Window>Freeze Panes and you will see a line
appear across your worksheet.   Everything above
the line is frozen and will remain in view when
you scroll down your worksheet.
 PIVOT TABLE

• A Pivot table lets your arrange, sort, and filter a

set of data on the fly so you can analyze it from
different perspectives with minimum effort.
• Start with a data list with a few columns
• Make sure each of the rows have a value of each one of
the columns