message

#DIV/0! Always click in the cell you want your formula to be

4 - Excel: formulas
calculated into, before entering the formula.
This error, #####,
There are three types of data you can put in a cell in means that the value
an Excel spreadsheet, number, text and formulas. or text that you’ve Calculating the Sum
Formulas are used to add, subtract, multiply, etc. the calculated is too wide
numbers in a cell (or cells) and produce a new To calculate a sum quickly, click in the
to be displayed. To
answer. cell you want your sum to appear in
fix this, click between
and click on the Autosum button ∑ in the standard
the cells in the
To enter a toolbar. Then highlight the cells you want added
header (grey part)
formula, click together, and press the Enter key. (If you click on
FORMULA and drag to make the
within a cell the down arrow
column wider. If you double click on this dividing line,
(e.g., C4), and Next to the Sum button, you can choose other
the column width will be adjusted automatically.
type an equals sign (=). You’ll notice that it begins formulas.)
appearing in the formula toolbar and the cell. You can
either type in a formula or click on the little down Main formula calculation keys
arrowÐ This will give you access to the formula
Wizard. Addition + e.g. =B2+C3
Subtraction - e.g. =B2-C3
Multiplication * e.g. =B2*C3 Copying formula to other cells
Viewing your Formula Division / e.g. =B2/C3
Often, when you have plenty of data, it can be
Brackets () e.g. =(B2+C3)*D4
Once you’ve finished typing the formula in and clicked annoying having to continuously type in a similar
Exponent ^ (Shift-6) e.g. 23 =2^3
out of the cell, the cell will then display the formula over and over again.
calculation result. To view the formula, you can For example, if you want the sum of 9 values in
either view it in the formula toolbar, or you can press column B entered in B13, the sum of values in
Ctrl and ` (the button above the Tab key). This BEDMAS column C entered in C13 etc…, but don’t want to
option is useful if you want to print your spreadsheet change all the Bs, Cs, and Ds over, there is a handy
Excel operates on the BEDMAS order of calculations.
and see the formulas. tool just for you! Type the formula into B13. You’ll
This is important so you know where you need to put
notice that when you hover the mouse over that cell
brackets. (Hint: if in doubt, always use brackets.)
it the pointer is a big white cross. If you move the
B = Brackets
Invalid Formulae mouse to the bottom right of the cell you’ll notice that
E = Exponents (power functions)
it turns into a thin black cross. If you left-click there,
Sometimes after entering a formula, you’ll find a D = Division
and drag it over into the other cells, the formula will
funny looking entry in the cell…for example… M = Multiplication
be copied into the new cells. Each formula will relate
A = Addition
to its position and in this example will calculate the
When one of the cells you’re using in your equation S = Subtraction
sum of the numbers directly above it. The formulas
has an invalid number in it, e.g., =15+3r, then you would look something like:
may get this error message like this:
#VALUE! How to calculate using multiple cells =SUM(E5:E9) =SUM(F5:F9) =SUM(G5:G9)
Instead of adding together just 2 cells (e.g., B2+C3),
In this example, note that the value in
you may need to calculate 6 cells. This is where you
B1 is not a valid number. The formula
need to use the colon: to tell the computer that you
in B6 will produce an error when it tries
want to include all data from between one value and
to process a non valid number.
another. For example, if you want to add data from
B2 to B20, you would
More invalid formulae
type =SUM(B2:B8) Alternatively, type =SUM( and
If you try to divide a
then highlight B2 through to B8, close the bracket,
particular number by 0, you’ll
and press the Enter key.
get the following error
Keeping values constant when copying formula
If you want the formula copied over, but you want
one of the values to remain constant over all the
cells, simply insert a dollar symbol $ before the value
you want to remain constant, e.g., =$B5+C1

To calculate Standard Deviation in Excel, type

=STDEV( in the formula toolbar, highlight the range
of cells you wish to calculate with, then click on the
green tick to the left of the formula bar. This will add
the range of cells you highlighted, and close the
bracket for you.
Excel:
formulas
Copying cells that contain formulas
If you perform a simple copy and paste on a cell
containing a formula, it will paste the formula into the
new cells, not the calculated value. To paste the
calculated value only, copy and then go to the Edit
menu and click on Paste Special. From the dialogue
box, you’ll notice that All is checked. Instead click
Values and click OK.

Updating references
When doing budgets or large-scale calculations this
tool is rather useful. Perhaps you’ve just calculated a Tip sheet #4
value, and you want that value to be inserted in other
cells in the spreadsheet. Click in the cell and type =
and then the cell you wanted it copied from (eg =B2).
If you’re copying from sheet 1 into sheet 2, then type
in the formula bar: =‘sheet 1’!B2. Whatever is
located in B2 of sheet 1 will be copied into sheet 2. Student
Don’t forget the speech marks and the exclamation
mark! Computing
Services
Calculating Standard
Deviation
Standard deviation uses April 2007
the following formula: