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Excel Fundamentals Manual 30

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13 views

Excel Fundamentals Manual 30

Uploaded by

abdul rehman
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Microsoft Excel

UNDERSTANDING FUNCTIONS
Imagine having to create a formula that time consuming to develop. This is the role of
calculated the monthly payments on a loan, or hundreds of arithmetic functions that have been
the average of over 100 cells – these would pre-programmed in Excel for you.
require complex or long formulas that would be

Functions Overview
Functions are simply pre-programmed formulas already provided for you in Excel which can perform
calculations covering a wide range of categories including statistics, date and time arithmetic, financial
calculations, lists, engineering, and more.
Just like normal formulas that you create, functions must start with an equal sign. The equal sign is
then followed by the name of the function (usually a descriptive name which indicates the purpose of
the function). Most functions also require additional information known as arguments which are
supplied to the function in brackets after the function name. Functions are therefore written as follows:
=name(arguments)
The arguments are quite often cell or range references that contain values that can be used in the
function. For example, the commonest function is the SUM function which, as its name suggests, is
used to sum or add values together. If you wanted to add all of the values in the cells from B10 to D15
you would write this function as:
=SUM(B10:D15)
As you can see this is much simpler than writing your own referential formula which would look like:
=B10+B11+B12+B13+B14+B15+D10+D11+D12+D13+D14+D15
Imagine writing and proofing a formula where you had to add 200 cells!
Typing Functions
If you are familiar with the function that you need you can type it into a cell exactly the same way you
type any other formula. If you are not sure if Excel has a function or you can’t quite remember how it is
written you can use the Insert Function tool on the Formula Bar to assist you. When you click on
this tool the Insert Function dialog box will be presented to you which lists the most recently used or
common functions and also allows you to search for other functions that you might need.

The Insert Function dialog box will also type the function out for you and then provide you with a
further dialog box to guide you through the process of specifying the arguments that the function
needs to perform its calculation.

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