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The purpose with this Excel tutorial is to illustrate some Excel tips that will dramatically improve your
efficiency. No attempt has been made to be as encyclopedic as some of the 800-page Excel books
available. The focus here is on common tasks, not every last thing you can do in Excel. Also, this tutorial
presumes that you have some Excel knowledge. For example, you should know about rows and columns,
values, labels, and formulas, and other basic Excel elements. If you know virtually nothing about Excel,
you should probably work through an Excel for Dummies book and then work through this tutorial.
The style of this tutorial is easy to follow. The List of Topics sheet contains hyperlinks to the various
worksheets where you can learn and practice various skills. Each of these worksheets has a hyperlink in
cell A2 back to the List of Topics sheet.
It is a good idea to save this file as Excel Tutorial Copy.xlsx, or some such name, and work with the copy.
That way, if you mess anything up as you try the exercises, you can always retrieve the original file, Excel
Tutorial for Windows.xlsx.
The version of this tutorial you are now viewing is available for free to users of the Albright/Winston
Cengage textbooks and certain other Cengage spreadsheet-oriented textbooks. However, there is a
commercial version, called ExcelNow! available at http://excelnowtutorial.com. The commercial version
is available at a significant discount (use coupon code ExcelNow20) for purchasers of the textbook. Its
main enhancements include:
1. A better user interface. Instead of buttons on a List of Topics worksheet, you can choose topics from
an ExcelNow! ribbon.
2. More topics. There are quite a few new topics, such as Office clipboard, array formulas, data
consolidation, scenarios, subtotals, and themes. Also, besides the "main" topics, there are over 100
"quick tips" on little-known (but often useful) Excel features.
3. Videos. There are videos, including closed captions, for all of the topics. From the menus, you can
either choose to read about a topic, as you can do in this version, or you can watch a video about the
topic.
Whether you continue to use this version or upgrade to ExcelNow!, have fun improving your Excel skills!
dramatically improve your
800-page Excel books
do in Excel. Also, this tutorial
now about rows and columns,
rtually nothing about Excel,
work through this tutorial.
s of the Albright/Winston
oks. However, there is a
com. The commercial version
chasers of the textbook. Its
se the
or expand
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Changes in Excel
If Excel 2007 or a later version is your first exposure to Excel, you will love it.
However, if you are used to Excel 2003 or an earlier version, you will have
some unlearning and relearning to do. Several big changes were made in Excel
2007, along with many smaller changes. The changes made in Excel 2010 and
later versions were much less dramatic, so moving from Excel 2007 to 2010 or
a later version is quite easy. The text boxes below indicate the primary
changes in each of the post-2003 versions of Excel.
1. The Office button was replaced by the File menu for accessing the
backstage view, and the layout of this backstage view changed slightly.
2. You can now customize ribbons, although there are quite a few
restrictions on what you are allowed to change.
4. Two new buttons were added to the Developer ribbon for quick access
to "regular" or COM add-ins.
1. The style of the user interface changed yet again. Now the tabs are no
long all in uppercase, and the bar at the top is all green. (This can be
changed to dark gray or white from the Office Theme options in the
General tab of Excel Options.) Also, the layout of the backstage view
(from the File menu) changed once again.
2. The Insert ribbon has several new items in the Charts group. The new
chart types include histograms, box and whisker plots, tree maps,
sunburst charts, waterfall charts, and combo charts.
3. The Data ribbon contains a new Forecast Sheet item for forecasting
time series automatically, using exponential smoothing.
4. The Data ribbon contains a new Get & Transform group for querying
external data sources. These actually implement Power Query,
Microsoft's querying add-in, part of its Power BI (Business Intelligence)
2. The Insert ribbon has several new items in the Charts group. The new
chart types include histograms, box and whisker plots, tree maps,
sunburst charts, waterfall charts, and combo charts.
3. The Data ribbon contains a new Forecast Sheet item for forecasting
time series automatically, using exponential smoothing.
4. The Data ribbon contains a new Get & Transform group for querying
external data sources. These actually implement Power Query,
Microsoft's querying add-in, part of its Power BI (Business Intelligence)
suite of tools.
5. The other Power BI add-ins, Power Pivot, Power View, and Power Map
are all part of Excel 2016, available as COM add-ins, with slightly different
interfaces than before. However, these are not available in all versions of
Excel. If you plan to use these tools, you should check carefully before
you purchase Office (or Office 365).
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Starting in Excel 2007, Microsoft completely reorganized the user interface of the
Office products. Instead of the old menus and toolbars, there are now tabs and
ribbons. Each tab (Home, Insert, Page Layout, etc.) has an associated ribbon that is
similar to the old toolbars. (See to the right for the ribbons in Excel 2016. Those in
Excel 2007, 2010, and 2013 are similar.) For example, if you click the Formulas tab,
you get a ribbon with buttons that are useful for working with formulas. Each ribbon
has several groups of buttons. For example, the Formulas ribbon has one group
called Defined Names for manipulating range names. There is only one way to learn
these ribbons: by practicing and experimenting. Eventually, you will appreciate that
the ribbons are more logically organized than the old menus.
If you are using Excel 2007, you cant customize the new ribbons; they are built in
and fixed. (Well, that isn't quite true. You can use the RibbonX technology, not
covered here, to customize them.) However, you can customize the ribbons fairly
easily in post-2007 versions. This is explained in another topic of this tutorial.
With the old menus gone, what about the keyboard shortcuts many of you like to
use? Most of them still work. For example, you can still press Ctrl+s to save a file or
Ctrl+p to print.
If you are a mouse person, hover the mouse above any tab and move the scroll
wheel. This will cycle through all of the tabs. Also, if you prefer keyboarding to
mousing, here's something you will like. Press the Alt key. In the ribbon area, you will
see a shortcut key for each tab. For example, M is for Formulas. Press any of these
shortcut keys to see the corresponding ribbon, and each one of its buttons will have
a shortcut key. Press the one you want, which is equivalent to clicking the button. To
make these shortcut keys disappear, press the Alt key again.
Try it! Use the Alt method to open the Name Manager on the Formulas ribbon.
A few of the new tabs are not visible until you select an appropriate object. For
example, when you select a chart, two Chart Tools tabs (Design, Format) become
visible. (There were three Chart Tools tabs in previous versions.) Or when you select
an Excel table, a Table Tools Design tab becomes visible.
If you need more space, you can right-click any ribbon and select Collapse the
Ribbon. You can then restore it in the same way. Also, note that depending on the
width of the Excel window, some ribbons might not show fully, but everything is still
available.
In general, Excel 2007 and later versions are more intelligent about context. In the
context of what you are doing, if something is relevant, it is likely to appear.
Otherwise, it remains hidden.
List of Topics sheet
Home Ribbon
Insert Ribbon
Formulas Ribbon
Data Ribbon
Review Ribbon
View Ribbon
Developer Ribbon
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Starting in Excel 2010, Microsoft made a welcome change that allows you
to customize the built-in ribbons. You might recall that in Excel 2003 and
earlier versions, you could change the menu structure to your liking fairly
easily. Then came the new ribbons in Excel 2007, which were pretty
much fixed (unless you were willing to use the rather obscure RibbonX
technology with XML code). Evidently, Microsoft received enough
complaints about the fixed ribbons that it returned to customizable
ribbons in Excel 2010. Fortunately, customizing is quite easy.
To do so, right-click any ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon. This
opens the dialog box to the right. (This dialog box is also available from
the Excel Options group.) From here, the options are straightforward. You
can create a new tab, create a new group under a given tab, and rename
either of these. Then you can move buttons from the left pane to the
right. As an example, the screenshot to the right illustrates how you
could create a new Tables group under the Data tab and then populate it
with PivotTable and Table buttons. This would allow you to get pivot
tables or tables from either the Insert ribbon or the Data ribbon.
Note that the Reset button lets you restore all of the ribbons or a
particular ribbon to its original state.
Note: The changes described above are the easy "point and click"
changes. If you are more ambitious, you can use RibbonX technology to
make more extensive changes by writing XML code. Do a Web search for
RibbonX if you're interested.
Customize Ribbon dialog box
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
File Menu
Just as users were getting used to the Office button in Office 2007 for getting into
"backstage view," Microsoft replaced it with the File menu in Office 2010, and this
has remained in later versions. The File menu in Excel 2016 leads to slightly different
options than in earlier versions, as shown to the right. In each of these versions of
Excel, the File menu (or Office button) takes you to the backstage view where you
can perform file operations, and it is where you can open the Excel Options dialog
box. There are too many options to explain here, so it is best to experiment. You
shouldn't have any trouble finding what you want. For example, to see exactly which
version of Excel you have, click the Account option.
To leave backstage view, simply click the back arrow at the top left.
of Topics sheet
QAT
Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)
Starting in Excel 2007, there is a Quick Acess Toolbar (QAT) at the top left of QAT Customize list
the Excel window. You can put your favorite buttons on this toolbar so that
they are always visible and available. The QAT comes with a few favorite
buttons, but you can add more. The one shown to the right contains several
favorite buttons in addition to the default buttons.
Click the dropdown arrow to the right of your QAT. You will see the list to the
right of the most commonly used buttons, which you can then check to add
them to your QAT. You can also click the More Commands item in this list to
see the dialog box to the far right. If contains a huge number of other buttons
you can add to your QAT. In fact, if you create your own macros to perform
common tasks, you can place buttons to run them on your QAT.
In Excel 2010 or later, you can get to the Customize dialog box by clicking the
File button, then Options, and then Quick Access Toolbar. Or in any of these
versions, you can simply right-click any QAT button and select the Customize
Quick Access Toolbar option.
You can also right-click any button on the visible ribbon and select Add to
Quick Access Toolbar to add this button to your QAT. Similarly, a quick way to
delete a button from your QAT is to right-click any of its buttons and select
Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.
Try it! Add some of your favorite buttons to the QAT. Fortunately, you will have
to do this only once on any given PC.
QAT Customize list QAT Customize dialog box
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Excel Options
Excel has many options for changing the software's behavior. To get to it,
click the File button in the upper left corner of the screen and then
Options. As shown to the right, you will see that the options are grouped
in categories: General, Formulas, and others. You might have to hunt a
while, but you will eventually find what you are looking for among the
large number of options available.
Try it! Under the General group, change the default number of worksheets
in a new file from 3 to 1. (Why have 3 when you usually need only 1? If
you need more, you can always add them. Note that Microsoft seems to
have changed the default to 1 in Excel 2016.)
Try it! Under the Advanced group, the first Editing option lets you choose
the direction you want the cursor to move when you press Enter. Change
it to the direction you prefer.
Try it! Excel makes some automatic changes for you when you type certain
characters. For example, if you type (c), it automatically changes this to a
copyright symbol. If you find this annoying, you can change it through the
AutoCorrect Options button in the Proofing group. Similarly, add an
abbreviation for your name or company through AutoCorrect Options so
that whenever you type the abbreviation, the full name appears.
Note that most of the options are for Excel as a whole, not for any
particular workbooks or worksheets you might have open. However, there
are a few that are workbook-specific or worksheet-specific. For example,
in the Advanced group, there are two sets of options, "Display options for
this workbook" and "Display options for this worksheet" that can be varied
from one workbook or worksheet to another.
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Note that if you save your file as an .xlsx file, users with Excel 2003 wont
be able to open it unless they download and install a free file format
converter from Microsoft. (Search the Web for Microsoft Office
Compatibility Pack to find this free download.) In the other direction, if
you save a file created in Excel 2007 or a later version as an .xls file, it will
probably work fine, and it will be readable by users with older versions of
Excel, but it won't be able to take advantage of changes in post-2003
versions. In fact, some new elements such as sparklines won't appear at
all.
There are a few other new file extensions you might see, including the
following:
.xlsm: If your Excel file has associated VBA macros, and you want to save
it in the post-2003 XML format, you must save it as an .xlsm file ("m" for
macro). You might also see files with an .xlam extension. These are Excel
add-ins. In pre-2007 versions, add-ins had an .xla extension.
.xltx: This is a template file ("t" for template). Templates are discussed in
the Templates topic of this tutorial.
.xlsb: This is a binary file ("b" for binary). The only file you will probably
see with this extension is the Personal.xlsb file, used for storing your
favorite macros. See the Recording Macros topic in this tutorial for more
about this special file, your "Personal Macro Workbook."
Try it! Open a new workbook in Excel 2007 or a later version and do a
Save As. You will see the list of file types to the right. Because you are in
Excel 2007 or later, the default type is the top one, .xlsx. But if you wanted
to give this to a colleague with Excel 2003, you could save it as an Excel
97-2003 .xls workbook. (You could even save it as an Excel 5.0/95 .xls
workbook, but let's hope those days are over!) Alternatively, if your file
contained macros, you could store it in the new format as an .xlsm file, or
you could store it in the old 97-2003 .xls format.
97-2003 .xls workbook. (You could even save it as an Excel 5.0/95 .xls
workbook, but let's hope those days are over!) Alternatively, if your file
contained macros, you could store it in the new format as an .xlsm file, or
you could store it in the old 97-2003 .xls format.
File types (under Save As)
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
When you are working on a large worksheet, you often want to reorient yourself
by going back to cell A1, the "home" cell. This is easy. Just press Ctrl+Home from
anywhere in a worksheet, and you will go to cell A1.
Try it! Scroll way down and way across to the right. Then press Ctrl+Home.
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
61
Splitting the Screen 95
33
It is often useful to split the screen so that you can see more data.
49
To split the screen: 10
Select the cell where you want the split to occur and then click the Split button on the 14
View ribbon. This provides four panes that operate independently. Once you have 21
these panes, practice scrolling around in any of them, and see how the others react. 8
Try it! Split the screen so that you can see the top left cell and the bottom right cell in 94
the data set to the right. Then remove the splits by clicking the Split button again. 84
Actually, if you want to remove only one of the splits, horizontal or vertical, you can 62
drag the split line to the right or down to the edge of the window.
16
Note: Prior to Excel 2013, you could drag buttons next to the scrollbars to split either 93
vertically or horizontally. Perhaps these buttons were too difficult to locate, so they 6
were eliminated in Excel 2013.
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80 64 22 36 66 3 14 81 69 35
54 13 100 97 23 71 46 63 52 11
88 74 93 53 84 2 55 10 2 22
28 66 58 48 87 30 12 83 27 91
35 40 86 85 56 79 20 7 86 34
5 86 97 42 43 21 71 86 70 58
64 50 32 28 86 46 98 2 36 54
67 43 64 41 72 95 83 92 44 61
64 79 7 7 94 92 40 25 88 51
55 34 5 19 89 58 38 82 66 35
43 50 69 37 11 16 79 92 17 18
79 76 21 85 12 67 18 32 68 90
82 70 80 13 44 70 57 27 70 26
83 5 79 15 91 92 29 50 79 67
84 67 96 65 88 82 98 12 30 63
13 37 12 100 57 68 80 27 71 32
51 75 17 89 44 22 34 62 95 25
60 8 51 74 41 84 1 38 82 80
29 35 1 37 65 88 99 45 100 96
29 86 53 36 26 23 83 19 63 68
43 93 34 93 35 17 6 99 55 7
94 30 49 86 7 18 39 54 4
23 85 57 84 89 53 25 57 97
82 3 62 89 17 6 28 99 26
34 22 37 39 24 64 31 5 86
88 67 62 23 32 72 65 32 98
51 41 90 79 49 16 49 75 78
33 93 81 44 4 88 50 19 1
97 78 79 17 62 1 69 26 74
51 75 63 6 63 31 7 55 24
74 34 52 4 26 55 60 27 51
41 93 77 33 8 38 89 95 20
91 57 9 49 93 62 45 7 62
20 20 58 23 16 69 51 15 70
58 95 64 9 8 100 60 65 68
36 90 61 40 12 19 89 39 34
54 65 39 72 94 59 47 24 86
78 44 4 59 90 43 100 9 70
72 45 7 49 10 21 27 54 43
43 19 59 8 91 55 42 23 11
16 9 95 61 27 11 5 36 4
99 9 46 3 51 38 24 33 63
44 97 68 7 19 6 5 58 66
12 29 60 65 93 60 21 8 47
62 52 39 46 20 82 66 58 1
46 32 58 36 71 83 52 40 39
1 68 95 2 61 97 54 39 61
96 80 77 31 34 12 49 70 96
12 85 9 66 69 72 40 83 90
33 77 7 2 2 19 80 23 27
59 94 24 17 90 11 46 62 32
63 64 10 34 41 80 87 45 58
27 31 20 25 54 5 13 91 100
99 41 92 91 19 30 18 86 8
45 7 12 6 57 47 28 83 98
100 90 83 1 63 61 64 84 67
18 81 23 31 28 35 80 70 59
68 83 22 89 64 80 60 12 26
79 6 16 40 73 91 36 4 86
98 35 16 18 54 88 24 57 41
91 85 3 47 50 2 16 61 94
88 14 43 47 47 90 15 46 73
29 64 78 57 91 27 89 65 24
89 69 40 42 5 10 90 97 7
86 71 40 15 90 70 18 61 100
66 36 51 18 29 14 33 53 55
86 87 71 67 93 38 54 44 71
66 2 7 87 67 4 45 69 90
63 48 88 61 71 20 71 58 32
26 17 44 46 100 63 29 24 7
37 24 28 75 84 24 96 11 4
63 63 77 3 11 68 60 60 52
4 41 22 37 31 48 24 53 36
83 73 74 6 54 46 32 19 80
51 24 19 55 32 8 2 67 19
11 58 49 47 38 28 49 39 31
34 92 64 34 58 32 14 27 14
11 67 64 54 37 90 40 81 97
66 74 49 57 66 3 23 17 76
84 57 73 25 58 52 26 91 48
88 93 15 18 40 35 16 98 26
90 18 3 10 84 79 47 67 41
36 82 50 80 68 96 82 17 97
46 78 59 25 9 28 74 1 62
37 30 96 5 76 49 65 52 50
43 21 16 65 24 16 82 99 56
47 34 84 85 42 95 78 91 97
50 68 16 50 17 53 37 33 94
100 75 83 59 92 40 73 19 70
83 93 88 84 64 85 41 63 49
76 57 69 70 52 39 10 16 39
84 11 3 80 49 5 24 37 67
58 23 46 28 58 84 17 80 4
70 91 48 36 56 15 88 39 93
37 20 86 24 81 78 89 69 6
47 61 93 13 91 62 70 41 3
40 59 2 100 33 74 81 81 44
66 92 37 83 58 31 4 66 40
12 31 77 11 53 7 56 47 7
5 79 51 73 41 45 37 15 44
28 23 33 4 62 29 27 44 15
48 92 63 14 15 52 50 92 43
4 10 61 75 62 89 19 47 48
11 25 50 14 88 49 16 14 94
30 59 11 72 82 26 50 63 41
65 32 94 90 63 6 76 15 56
95 22 99 54 46 36 63 38 7
6 2 96 16 42 51 15 38 59
11 42 23 50 40 57 84 62 14
36 2 14 22 82 9 61 72 77
84 7 72 88 46 64 51 68 71
35 22 25 50 83 60 85 94 24
97 88 39 57 66 70 97 30 77
11 88 12 51 21 40 12 10 37
93 97 12 78 55 78 89 6 20
36 73 89 67 83 56 62 87 85
66 95 46 21 56 46 19 80 14
61 50 100 58 92 31 3 37 63
30 61 73 2 83 83 55 41 20
10 30 39 51 55 34 74 72 58
23 62 19 5 96 95 80 4 56
63 34 38 75 73 65 62 50 41
13 72 10 45 43 66 64 68 9
59 89 24 56 64 44 26 47 31
29 99 56 63 14 30 28 94 59
84 28 77 28 76 27 96 84 6
77 16 95 82 15 8 4 41 50
46 36 8 63 8 15 28 32 30
59 63 65 31 93 16 71 88 3
28 95 38 72 50 5 84 15 2
80 70 84 97 90 3 93 96 47
79 37 69 82 95 100 71 26 58
59 5 36 3 39 52 1 45 7
48 20 20 40 75 65 42 17 70
4 57 79 9 84 2 41 9 13
84 25 27 3 4 44 79 55 61
82 92 100 100 32 59 7 1 72
74 73 32 35 100 22 60 37 62
5 10 51 64 23 93 67 3 84
60 25 59 91 15 76 44 28 70
17 13 92 8 77 38 83 41 91
55 98 4 99 58 5 92 23 45
68 83 6 32 7 84 77 76 56
40 51 87 91 87 50 92 62 81
13 30 54 49 1 31 100 16 40
56 47 79 51 14 2 55 93 38
42 54 3 84 69 53 19 95 95
24 100 23 72 92 42 63 99 96
50 52 6 49 61 93 86 70 67
38 79 52 81 29 93 50 46 53
60 83 26 92 63 37 72 38 66
5 82 48 26 40 20 7 84 34
51 54 75 88 27 35 13 20 28
43 30 82 39 9 11 36 50 33
30 9 44 38 9 19 25 64 74
21 50 94 4 32 36 13 71 60
32 44 50 57 98 55 18 18 88
46 41 83 59 75 66 65 88 32
73 84 3 11 36 69 53 10 33
65 21 89 53 90 23 79 75 37
46 3 49 96 43 66 16 68 85
98 28 28 43 75 15 15 46 97
56 15 80 83 32 36 100 78 96
10 97 100 60 1 52 42 8 90
41 25 55 7 30 61 71 5 68
87 40 30 39 55 79 98 85 23
56 17 12 94 57 99 20 35 92
73 40 42 65 73 22 7 7 99
74 60 9 26 83 36 58 66 35
96 91 86 93 2 100 15 54 54
31 61 93 26 3 67 9 3 38
10 27 58 29 28 35 27 68 2
15 33 49 62 75 50 5 45 20
90 1 77 59 61 73 66 32 39
3 84 8 56 20 9 91 72 19
97 67 13 41 20 38 39 11 46
87 18 8 70 43 40 74 98 73
48 25 58 33 53 72 18 12 41
27 52 51 8 16 61 6 68 43
34 17 4 83 1 60 22 74 33
18 98 18 51 87 36 70 19 46
100 96 9 25 81 17 67 34 71
5 42 37 65 87 48 98 10 82
47 28 59 9 22 39 98 65 19
8 83 32 57 16 16 71 27 37
87 48 65 79 38 7 90 6 23
73 76 6 98 65 19 51 78 92
13 61 27 56 89 25 88 73 49
12 97 43 44 78 72 71 82 28
77 14 12 10 13 29 6 30 35
93 31 39 85 87 70 67 32 69
22 71 10 74 95 96 34 99 53
95 88 25 10 67 89 69 42 2
11 82 8 78 66 30 97 83 68
30 73 36 83 50 28 39 57 91
8 26 2 45 59 81 53 1 75
78 7 74 71 47 1 30 27 76
48 25 70 87 64 15 15 72 32
10 61 51 76 97 63 47 53 29
100 19 90 16 86 11 76 81 39
84 5 91 13 8 39 81 4 61
31 51 87 63 27 45 49 50 65
93 91 28 46 23 88 85 35 40
18 39 47 58 8 15 90 15 32
51 66 27 68 38 35 85 43 24
100 27 59 4 52 3 43 57 17
100 5 12 62 10 44 48 71 75
27 76 20 63 11 98 3 100 16
10 49 30 29 55 16 28 9 72
22 93 40 35 2 82 85 97 87
60 39 88 93 51 32 82 69 51
51 51 17 89 70 63 68 73 42
34 36 50 48 7 7 34 32 16
15 62 12 7 66 38 41 87 41
11 40 58 23 97 30 5 84 59
90 67 21 39 41 13 30 75 20
69 83 17 19 16 84 43 31 27
18 42 64 31 92 65 83 1 33
82 56 87 70 7 74 16 95 60
57 67 77 13 42 76 76 89 48
22 19 1 2 64 87 74 46 91
78 72 3 68 36 88 8 32 71
16 94 72 12 82 42 65 93 9
14 79 7 33 35 21 24 85 16
49 77 14 10 50 64 21 88 100
91 83 14 45 6 43 87 6 7
55 97 83 7 32 75 92 65 48
21 100 94 12 94 24 6 14 83
23 10 34 14 47 66 30 97 91
86 25 92 19 34 22 52 51 8
32 5 74 4 19 3 26 66 68
3 86 44 78 43 88 5 38 94
54 35 92 35 1 72 78 79 69
9 90 16 28 65 6 91 29 41
54 21 94 85 70 86 71 1 55
63 5 14 72 9 39 98 56 94
28 82 89 37 68 86 9 97 62
26 6 95 19 27 41 83 90 16
35 80 19 43 13 70 22 74 9
76 41 47 40 73 65 63 98 15
63 60 39 27 18 16 6 19 28
51 55 90 20 49 94 56 53 17
25 64 36 1 18 78 31 90 51
77 22 5 57 15 39 90 19 14
35 11 65 31 14 52 19 42 12
56 39 15 59 88 100 9 38 72
20 88 51 91 14 81 34 27 21
8 63 47 72 79 86 48 37 83
99 84 81 23 29 16 2 96 28
31 4 32 63 94 50 10 95 74
71 66 93 74 40 99 13 81 49
88 8 78 17 63 6 20 69 68
46 39 87 34 73 95 48 44 54
19 5 95 71 17 1 90 40 22
31 70 14 88 34 26 41 73 23
2 10 75 78 3 73 5 25 37
61 39 85 83 56 27 95 58 16
79 80 1 15 35 94 85 44 59
95 53 51 21 88 93 34 27 24
22 63 28 60 26 91 1 48 62
37 36 79 93 56 75 94 87 58
5 79 8 35 38 75 6 94 63
1 24 33 27 52 25 19 13 79
5 9 64 2 45 80 64 47 74
60 47 59 76 77 10 81 3 22
35 39 48 4 93 9 84 74 63
53 26 36 10 46 67 80 84 42
2 63 86 81 17 8 33 79 31
29 73 6 5 10 92 65 39 20
95 100 81 98 51 36 17 77 22
62 3 12 77 12 62 23 90 83
22 59 50 50 36 14 35 52 34
48 59 87 55 93 88 7 82 96
56 13 51 45 14 71 53 31 89
19 28 49 60 12 52 46 48 54
14 67 63 24 34 94 30 31 1
74 10 13 15 92 27 19 19 43
87 90 22 41 37 46 25 88 44
38 95 69 58 74 11 81 99 50
66 66 59 30 19 86 51 6 44
95 64 35 84 26 90 96 8 6
58 5 46 37 11 18 32 63 71
88 10 83 19 26 36 84 78 48
42 29 55 37 95 65 59 47 95
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
If you favor keystrokes to mouse clicks, you can try the methods on this worksheet
for selecting large ranges or for moving around in them. Four types of keystroke
combinations are illustrated here: (1) Ctrl+Arrow combinations, (2) End, Arrow
combinations, (3) Ctrl+End, and (4) Ctrl+a. The first two are basically for moving to
corners of a data range, usually one that doesn't fit on a screen. Just be aware that
if you use either of the first two, the active cell moves from corner to corner, but
nothing in between is selected. To select, you need to hold the Shift key.
Ctrl+Arrow Combinations
It is often useful to zoom to the bottom, top, right, or left corner of a data range.
You can do this easily with the Ctrl+Arrow combinations.
Select some cell in the data range, usually the upper left cell. Then press the Ctrl
key and the appropriate Arrow key simultaneously. For example, press Ctrl+Right
Arrow to go to the right corner of a range.
Try it! Starting at the gray cell to the right, move around to the other corners of
the large data range. You should end back in the gray cell.
Try it again! This time hold the Shift key. Then the Ctrl+Down Arrow combination
followed by the Ctrl+Right Arrow combination selects the entire range.
Try it again! Starting in the blue cell in the small data set above, use the
Ctrl+Arrow combinations to see how they are affected by blank cells.
Try it! Do the same exercises as above but now with End, Arrow combinations.
Try it! Do the same exercises as above but now with End, Arrow combinations.
Ctrl+End combination
Another possibility is to use the Ctrl+End combination. Starting from any cell, this
selects the bottom right nonempty cell in the worksheet. If you hold the Shift key,
this selects the range from the active cell to the bottom right nonempty cell in the
worksheet.
Try it! Select the large data range to the right with the Shift+Ctrl+End combination.
You should start with the upper left cell in the data range.
This key combination often comes in handy when files much larger than you think
they should be. For example, you might see that the size of your "small" file is
1MB or more. It could be that junk is somewhere way down in a worksheet. If you
press Ctrl+End and it takes you way down or across, well beyond your data, this is
a sure sign of junk that you can then delete.
Ctrl+a combination
A last quick way to select a data range, even one with some blanks as in the small
data set above, is to select any of the cells in the range and press Ctrl+a . (No Shift
key is necessary.) You can think of "a" as an abbreviation for "all".
Try it! Use Ctrl+a to select either the small data set or large data set to the right.
You will note that every cell "surrounding" the selected cell is selected, even the
labels above the data sets. This is why labels such as these are often separated by
blank rows from the real data ranges.
This is another combination that you can use to locate junk, as described in the
previous text box.
f Topics sheet
In Excel, you usually select a range and then do something to it, such as enter a
formula in it, format it, delete its contents, and so on. Therefore, it is extremely
important to be able to select a range efficiently.
First, it is important to realize that a rectangular range is defined by its upper left
cell and its bottom right cell. For example, the range address A1:D10 indicates that
the upper left cell is A1 and the bottom right cell is D10. So an easy way to select a
range is to click its upper left cell, hold the Shift key, and click its bottom right cell.
Click the upper left cell of the range and drag to the bottom right cell.
Or:
Click the upper left cell, hold the Shift key, and click the bottom right cell.
Try it! Select the small data range to the right by each of these methods. They are
both easy because the range is so small.
Selecting a range with the top-left/bottom-right method is trickier if you cant see
the whole range on the screen. Dragging, the method most users seem to use,
can be frustrating because things scroll by too quickly. You scroll too far, then not
far enough, then too far again, and so on. To avoid this endless scrolling , use the
following method instead.
Split the screen horizontally and vertically. To do this, select any cell in the data
range and click the Split button on the View ribbon. Then in the bottom right
pane, press Ctrl+Down Arrow and then Ctrl+Right Arrow to zoom to the bottom
right cell of the data range. Now that you can see the upper left and bottom right
cells of the range, click the upper left cell, hold the Shift key, and click the bottom
right cell. Then you can remove the split.
Try it! Select the entire data range with the method just described. With a little
practice, you should be able to do it in a few seconds.
Try it! Select the entire data range with the method just described. With a little
practice, you should be able to do it in a few seconds.
Topics sheet
Suppose you want to format more than one range in a certain way. The quickest
way is to select all ranges at once and then format them all at once.
Select the first range, press the Ctrl key, select the second range, press the Ctrl
key, select the third range, and so on.
For example, to select the top two ranges to the right, select cell K3, hold the
Shift key and select cell L5 (so now the first range is selected), hold the Ctrl key
and select cell N3, and release the Ctrl key. Finally, hold the Shift key and select
cell O7.
Note that in Excel 2007, the highlighting is sometimes hard to see. The shading
isnt as dark as in previous versions of Excel, so you might be fooled into thinking
you havent really selected multiple ranges. But the above method definitely
works, exactly as it always has. (This shading problem was fixed in Excel 2010, so
that the selection is now much more apparent.)
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S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Copying and pasting (often formulas) is one of the most frequently performed tasks in
Excel, and it can be a real time-waster if it is done inefficiently. For example, many people
scroll through a long range to select it, then click the Copy button or a Copy menu item,
then scroll again to select a paste range, and finally click the Paste button or a Paste menu
item. If this sounds familiar, you can definitely benefit from the tips here. As usual in
Microsoft products, there are multiple ways to perform the same task. You can use any or
all of the methods described here.
Copying and Pasting with the Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v Shortcut Keys
Select the copy range (using one of the efficient selection methods described in the
"Selecting" topics of this tutorial), press Ctrl+c (for copy), select the paste range
(again, efficiently), and press Ctrl+v (for paste). If you practice pressing Ctrl+c or
Ctrl+v with the little finger and index finger of your left hand, it will quickly become
automatic.
Of course, you can also click the Copy and Paste buttons on the Home ribbon, but the
keyboard shortcuts are faster. Besides, they work on virtually all Windows programs,
not just Excel.
Note that after pressing Ctrl+v, the copy range still has the "marching ants" dotted
lines around it, meaning that it could be pasted again. Press Esc key to get rid of the
marching ants.
Try it! Copy the formula in the top gray cell to the right to the entire gray range by
using Ctrl+c and Ctrl+v.
A frequent task is to enter a formula in one cell and copy it down a column or
across a row. There are several very efficient ways to do this. One way is to use the
Ctrl+Enter keyboard shortcut.
Starting with the top or left cell, select the range where the results will go. (Use the
efficient selection methods described earlier, especially if this range is a large one.)
Type the typical formula and press Ctrl+Enter (both keys at once) instead of Enter.
Try it! Fill the entire gray range to the right with Ctrl+Enter. Each cell should be the
product of the two values to its left.
Pressing Ctrl+Enter enters what you typed in all of the selected cells (adjusted for
relative addresses), so in general, it can be a real time-saver. For example, it can be
used to enter the number 10 in a whole range of cells. Just select the range, type
10, and press Ctrl+Enter.
Starting with the top or left cell, select the range where the results will go. (Use the
efficient selection methods described earlier, especially if this range is a large one.)
Type the typical formula and press Ctrl+Enter (both keys at once) instead of Enter.
Try it! Fill the entire gray range to the right with Ctrl+Enter. Each cell should be the
product of the two values to its left.
Pressing Ctrl+Enter enters what you typed in all of the selected cells (adjusted for
relative addresses), so in general, it can be a real time-saver. For example, it can be
used to enter the number 10 in a whole range of cells. Just select the range, type
10, and press Ctrl+Enter.
Try it! Fill the entire blue range to the right with 10 by using Ctrl+Enter.
Note: The Ctrl+Enter shortcut has one other use. If you enter a value or a formula
in a cell and press Enter, an adjacent cell becomes the next active cell. (The
direction depends on the first option in the Advanced group under Excel Options.)
However, there are often times when you want the current cell to remain selected.
To do this, enter the value and press Ctrl+Enter.
Try it! Enter the value 1500 in the red cell to the right and press Enter. Which cell is
now active? This depends on the first option in the Advanced group of Excel
Options on your PC. Whatever cell is active, enter 2000 in it, but this time press
Ctrl+Enter. Which cell is now active?
If you place the cursor at the bottom right of a cell, the cursor becomes a plus sign. This
is called the AutoFill handle. To copy a formula down, you can use the AutoFill handle in
two different ways. Here is the first.
To copy with the AutoFill handle by dragging:
Enter the formula in the top or left cell of the intended range. Place the cursor on the
AutoFill handle at the lower right of this cell, so that the cursor becomes a plus sign, and
drag this handle down or across to copy.
Try it! Copy the formula in the top gray cell to the right to the entire gray range by
dragging the AutoFill handle.
This method uses Excels built-in intelligence, but it works only in certain situations.
Lets say you have numbers in the range A3:B100. You want to enter a formula in cell
C3 and copy it down to cell C100. Because this is a very common task, Excel does it
for you if you double-click the AutoFill handle in cell C3. It senses the filled-up
range in column B and guesses that you want another filled-up range right next to it
in column C. If there were no adjacent filled-up range, double-clicking the AutoFill
handle wouldnt work. Also, if there is a missing value (a blank) in, say, cell B56, the
AutoFill method might not work the way you want.
The second way to copy down is to double-click the AutoFill handle.
This method uses Excels built-in intelligence, but it works only in certain situations.
Lets say you have numbers in the range A3:B100. You want to enter a formula in cell
C3 and copy it down to cell C100. Because this is a very common task, Excel does it
for you if you double-click the AutoFill handle in cell C3. It senses the filled-up
range in column B and guesses that you want another filled-up range right next to it
in column C. If there were no adjacent filled-up range, double-clicking the AutoFill
handle wouldnt work. Also, if there is a missing value (a blank) in, say, cell B56, the
AutoFill method might not work the way you want.
Try it! In the data range to the right, copy the formula in the top gray cell to the
entire gray range by double-clicking the AutoFill handle.
Notes: For some odd reason, double-clicking the AutoFill handle works only if you
are copying down a column. It doesn't work if you are copying across a row (although
you can drag the AutoFill handle across a row). It would be nice if this functionality
were eventually changed in Excel. We'll see. However, it does work if you are
entering the formulas in a column to the left of the data, that is, if the gray range
were in column J instead of column M.
One final way to copy a range is to select it, hold down the Ctrl key, place the cursor on
any edge of the range so that it becomes a four-way arrow, and drag to where you want
to paste it. Because you're holding the Ctrl key, you should see a small plus sign as you
drag. This means that you are making a copy.
Try it! The gray range to the right has numbers in columns K and L, and formulas in
column M. Use the method in this text box to copy the entire gray range, using the red
cell as the top left cell of the paste range.
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S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Often you would like to move data (or shapes, such as text boxes) from one location
to another.
Select the range (or shape) to be cut, press Ctrl+x (for cutting), select the upper left
corner of the paste range, and press Ctrl+v. (The little finger/index finger
combination on your left hand is good for pressing Ctrl+x or Ctrl+v.)
As with copying and pasting, ribbon buttons can be used instead of key
combinations, but the key combinations are quicker. Also, note that you need only
select the upper left cell of the paste range. Excel knows that the shape of the paste
range must be the same as the shape of the cut range.
Try it! Move the gray range one row down. (You might want to do this so that you
can add labels above the numbers.) Watch how relative addresses affect the
eventual formulas in column M.
There is an even quicker way to move a range. Select the range you want to move,
put the cursor on an edge of the range so that it becomes a 4-way arrow, and drag
the range to where you want it.
Try it! Use the 4-way arrow method to move the range back to where it was
originally, with cell K3 as its top left cell.
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S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
When you do a "regular" paste with Ctrl+v or one of the equivalent methods
discussed in the Copying and Pasting topic of this tutorial, several things are
pasted to the paste range: (1) if a copied cell has a value or text, it is pasted;
(2) if a copied cell has a formula, the formula is pasted, adjusted for relative
and absolute addresses; (3) the number formatting of any copied cell is
pasted; (4) other formats of the copied cell, including font, background color,
and border, are pasted. This is what you expect, and this is why you usually
use Ctrl+v or an equivalent method to paste.
However, Excel contains many paste variations in its Paste Special options.
One of the most common is to copy formulas and paste them as values, but
there are quite a few other options.
The Paste Special user interface has evolved over recent versions of Excel, but
the options remained about the same. Is it more user-friendly now than in the
past? You can be the judge of that. However, one really nice feature
introduced in Excel 2010 is that if you copy a range, select a paste range, and
then hover your mouse over any of the Paste Special icons, you immediately
see what the pasted version will look like, without committing to the paste.
Before continuing, be aware that one other way to get to Paste Special
options is to copy and then right-click. This option was available in pre-2007
versions of Excel, and it continues to be available. In addition, starting in Excel
2007, you can go directly to the Paste Special dialog box with the Ctrl+Alt+v
shortcut.
The rest of this worksheet explains and illustrates some of the Paste Special
options, using both the Paste Special dialog box and the gallery of icons under
the Paste dropdown. Note that one Paste Special option, transposing, is
discussed in the Transposing a Range topic of the tutorial.
A lot of users are not too happy with the Excel 2013 (or 2010) gallery of Paste
Special icons. Although you get tool tips when you hover the mouse over any
of them, they are fairly small icons, and they can certainly be confusing.
Therefore, many users jump right to the Paste Special dialog box where
everything is spelled out in words. You might want to do this as well, but you
might also want to learn what these new icons do. They are explained briefly,
row by row, to the right. For more details on any of them, see the cell
comments in column N.
Many of these icons have the same functionality as the corresponding items in
the Paste Special dialog box. However, the dialog box has some items with no
corresponding icons and vice versa. In any case, there is no need to memorize
of them, they are fairly small icons, and they can certainly be confusing.
Therefore, many users jump right to the Paste Special dialog box where
everything is spelled out in words. You might want to do this as well, but you
might also want to learn what these new icons do. They are explained briefly,
row by row, to the right. For more details on any of them, see the cell
comments in column N.
Many of these icons have the same functionality as the corresponding items in
the Paste Special dialog box. However, the dialog box has some items with no
corresponding icons and vice versa. In any case, there is no need to memorize
all of the options. The ones illustrated below are the ones you will probably
use most often, and you can always return to this worksheet or online help for
others you might occasionally use.
By the way, the options you see depend on what is currently copied. For
example, if nothing is copied, the entire Paste button is disabled. If a range of
cells (or a single cell) is copied, all of the icons are shown. If a chart or a shape
(a text box, a rectangle, a picture, etc.) is copied, only three of the icons are
shown.
You often have a range of cells that contain formulas, and you would like to
replace the formulas with the values they produce. Usually, you paste these
values over the copy range, that is, you overwrite the formulas with values.
However, it is also possible to select another range for the paste range. This is
totally up to you.
Copy the range with formulas with Ctrl+c, and select the range where you
want to paste the values, often the same as the copy range. Then select the
Paste dropdown on the Home ribbon, and select one of the "Paste Values"
options in the third row of icons. Alternatively, press Ctrl+Alt+v to open the
Paste Special dialog box and select one of the "Values" options.
Try it! Copy the top gray range to the right and paste it over itself as values.
Then check that the paste range contains values, not formulas.
Try it again! Copy the bottom gray range to the right and select a cell in
column O for pasting. Then hover the mouse over the three "Paste Values"
options in the third row of Paste Special icons. You should see clearly how
they differ. Eventually, click the one you prefer.
Here is something interesting about the examples you just tried. In the first
example, it doesn't matter which of the three icons in the third row you
choose. The gray background and dollar formatting are retained because they
start this way, and pasting special doesn't change them. However, in the
second example, when you paste the bottom gray range to a range that starts
with plain formatting, it does matter which "Paste Values" option you choose.
Shortcut tip: If you paste values over formulas frequenty, as many users do,
there is a quick keyboard shortcut you might want to memorize. It is actually
based on the menu system from Excel 2003, but it still works fine. First, press
Ctrl+c to copy. Then press Alt+e and then s to open the Paste Special dialog
box. Finally, press the Down Arrow key twice and then Enter to choose
Values option. Here is the entire keystroke sequence. With some practice,
you'll be able to do it in your sleep!
Sometimes you want to paste formulas to a range, but you don't want to change
the formatting of the paste range. You can do this in Excel 2010 or 2013 with the fx
icon in the first row of Paste Special icons, or you can do it in the Paste Special
dialog box with the Formulas option.
Try it! The gray range to the right contains formulas and various formatting. Paste
these formulas to column O, but don't paste the formats. Again, it is instructive to
copy the formulas, select a cell in column O for pasting, and hover the mouse over
the options in the first row of the Paste Special icons to see their differences.
One rather long way to do this is to select the range, press Ctrl+c, select the
paste range, and select either the first icon from the fourth row of the Paste
Special icons or the Formats option from Paste Special dialog box.
However, a quicker alternative to this method, and one that you should
definitely use, is to use the Format Painter button next to the Paste dropdown,
shown to the right. Select a cell with the format you want to copy, click the paint
brush, and click a cell (or drag a range) that you want to format. Note that if you
double-click the paint brush, you can copy the format multiple times. Press the
Esc key when you are finished.
Try it! Copy the formats (numbers formats, font, background, and border) in
column K to column M. Don't copy the values, just the formats. Then enter some
values in column M to check that the formatting is correct.
Paste Special: Multiplying (or Adding, Subtracting, Dividing) by a Constant
Sometimes you would like to multipy each number in a range by a constant. For
example, if you have revenues expressed in thousands of dollars, you might
want to multiply each value by 1000 so that they are expressed in dollars.
Fortunately, you do this without any formulas!
Enter the constant in a blank cell, and copy this cell. Then select the range of
values to multiply and select Multiply from the Paste Special dialog box.
This same method can also be used to add, subtract, or divide by a constant.
However, note that you do need to do this from the Paste Special dialog box.
These options aren't available on the Paste icon gallery.
Try it! Multiply each value in the range to the right by 1000. Then restore them
to their original values by dividing each value by 1000. Notice that no formulas
are involved; the numbers simply change. So once you are finished, you can
delete the multiplier from the cell where you entered it.
List of Topics sheet
Paste dropdown
Format painter
$47.65
$44.20
$37.68
$31.34
$89.36
$68.15
$28.57
147
173
217
178
120
203
137
217
153
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Often you set up a spreadsheet and then decide that you would rather have a
portion of it transposed. That is, you would like to turn it on its side, so that
rows become columns and vice versa. This is simple with one of Excels Paste
Special options.
To transpose a range:
Copy a range that you want to transpose with Ctrl+c. Then select the upper
left cell of the range where you want the transposed version, click the Paste
dropdown, and select the Transpose option circled to the right. Alternatively,
you can click Paste Special to open the Paste Special dialog box, and then
select its Transpose option.
Make sure there is enough room for the transposed version. For example, if
the original range has 3 rows and 5 columns, the transposed version will have
5 rows and 3 columns. If you select cell D5, say, as the upper left cell for the
transposed version, everything in the range D5:F9 will be overwritten by the
transposed version.
Try it! Transpose the range K19:O23 to a range with upper left cell K25. Note
that the gray cells contain formulas. Do the corresponding pasted cells still
have formulas? Are they still correct? Does the number formatting get pasted?
What about other formatting?
1. Select the entire range where you want the result to go. For example, if you
are transposing a range with 3 rows and 5 columns, select a blank range with
5 rows and 3 columns for the result.
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter (all three keys at once), not just Enter. You always use
this key combination to enter an array formula.
Try it! Use the TRANSPOSE function, starting in cell K40, to transpose the
range to the right. After you press Ctrl+Shift+Enter, look at the formula bar.
You will see that there are curly brackets around the formula. You do not
actually type these curly brackets. They simply indicate that this is an array
formula.
also work.)
3. Press Ctrl+Shift+Enter (all three keys at once), not just Enter. You always use
this key combination to enter an array formula.
Try it! Use the TRANSPOSE function, starting in cell K40, to transpose the
range to the right. After you press Ctrl+Shift+Enter, look at the formula bar.
You will see that there are curly brackets around the formula. You do not
actually type these curly brackets. They simply indicate that this is an array
formula.
At least for this example, the TRANSPOSE function method has a couple of
disadvantages. First, the formatting is lost. Second, you will see a 0 in the
upper left cell of the transpose range. This is because the upper left cell of the
copied range is blank. Unfortunately, you can't delete this 0 (although you
could paint it white). The result of TRANSPOSE comes as a "package," and you
can't delete or move any part of the package; you can only delete or move the
whole thing.
However, there is one place where the TRANSPOSE function is really useful,
namely, when you perform matrix multiplication (which is discussed in the
Array Formulas topic of this tutorial). Then you often need to use TRANSPOSE
so that the matrix multiplication is well-defined. For example, you aren't
allowed to multiply a 3x1 column by a 3x3 matrix. But you can multiply a 1x3
row (the column's transpose) by a 3x3 matrix.
List of Topics sheet
There is also a Redo button, just to the right of the Undo button, for
undoing an undo. Its shortcut key is Ctrl+y.
Note that there is a dropdown arrow next to the Undo button. This
allows you to select the action (not necessarily the previous action) to
undo. If you click this dropdown arrow, you will see that Excel
remembers a lot of your most recent actions. Just be aware that if you
select , say, the third most recent action, you will undo this action and
the other two most recent actions, that is, it is cumulative. The same
comments apply to the dropdown arrow next to the Redo button.
Not all actions can be undone. For example, you can't undo adding a
worksheet or deleting a worksheet. (This is a good reason, one of many,
for saving often!) Although it is hard to remember which actions can be
undone and which can't, you can always press Ctrl+z and hope for the
best.
Try it! Enter formulas in the gray range above to sum the two numbers to
their left. Then get rid of these formulas with Ctrl+z or the Undo button.
Then bring them back with Ctrl+y or the Redo button.
Undo and Redo buttons
48
10
17
18
48
16
41
20
25
28
19
8
34
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Sales data
Right-Clicking for Context-Sensitive Menus
Month
Right-clicking various items is certainly not new to Excel 2013, but there Jan-13
are now more options than ever. If you want instant context-sensitive
menus, you should always try right-clicking. This almost always leads to a Feb-13
useful menu of options. Mar-13
Apr-13
Try it! Select the sales figures to the right and right-click. Among other
things, this allows you to format the cells. Format these cells as currency May-13
with zero decimals. Jun-13
Try it! Right-click some part of the chart to the right. You will get a menu, Jul-13
but the menu items will depend on what you selected on the chart. Try Aug-13
right-clicking different parts of the chart to see how the menus change.
Try it! Right-click this text box that you are currently reading. Among
other things, you will get a Format Shape menu item lets you modify the
text box in many ways.
Try it! Right-click the screenshot to the right (which was inserted as a
Picture). Again, you will get a Format Picture menu item lets you modify
the picture in many ways.
Try it! Right-click this worksheet's tab. You will get still another menu. Are
you starting to appreciate how useful right-clicking can be?
Did you notice that when you right-clicked the sales values, you not only
got a menu, but you also got a mini-toolbar above or below the menu?
Try it again and look carefully. There is also a mini-toolbar when you
right-click a chart. Watch for these mini-toolbars when you right-click
something. They don't always appear, but when they do, they provide
still one more quick way to accomplish common tasks.
Sales data
Sales Sales
3108 4500
3993 4000
1644
3500
3078
3000
1830
2500
3279
3413 2000
1197 1500
1000
500
0
Jan-13 Feb-13 Mar-13 Apr-13 May-13 Jun-13 Jul -13 Aug-13
ul -13 Aug-13
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
http://www.shortcutwor
Shortcut Keys http://www.shortcutwor
http://www.veodin.com/
It is probably fair to say that the world of Excel users is composed of two
groups: mousers and keyboarders. The developer of this tutorial falls into
the mouse group, and this explains why the tutorial might be somewhat
lacking in shortcut key tips. However, there are plenty of you in the
keyboarders group, and you would probably like some more help on
shortcut keys.
But how many other shortcuts do you know? And how many can you
possibly remember? If you do a Web search for "shortcut keys in Excel",
you will get plenty of hits. For example, the three sites shown in the
hyperlinks to the right list more shortcuts than anyone could ever
remember. Of course, most of these shortcuts are the same for 2007 and
later versions, and many are relevant for pre-2007 versions of Excel. But to
say the least, these lists can be overwhelming. Therefore, only a very
subjective list has been included here, and you will find a few of these,
plus a few others, in other topics in this tutorial.
Conventions: The plus sign, as in Ctrl+a, means to press both keys at the
same time. Also, an uppercase F followed by a number, such as F12, refers
to one of the "function" keys near the top of the keyboard.
By the way, if you remember the old menu shortcut keys from pre-2007
versions of Excel, such as Alt+e and then d for deleting selected rows or
columns, you can probably continue to use them. Old habits die hard, so
Microsoft kept most of these for backward compatibility. However, they
are not listed here.
Ctrl+Home: go to cell A1
Ctrl+Arrow Key: move in the direction of the arrow to the last nonblank
cell (if the next cell is nonblank) or to the next nonblank cell (if the next
cell is blank)
Page Down or Page Up: move one screen down or one screen up
Ctrl+Home: go to cell A1
Ctrl+Arrow Key: move in the direction of the arrow to the last nonblank
cell (if the next cell is nonblank) or to the next nonblank cell (if the next
cell is blank)
Page Down or Page Up: move one screen down or one screen up
Alt+Page Down or Alt+Page Up: move one screen to the right or one
screen to the left
End: turns "end" mode on, and then arrow keys work just like with
Ctrl+Arrow Keys listed above
Ctrl+a: select the range of data surrounding the active cell, or press twice
to select the entire worksheet
Shift+Arrow Key: extend the selection by one cell in the direction of the
arrow
Ctrl+Shift+Arrow Key: extend the selection to the last cell nonblank cell in
the direction of the arrow
Ctrl+c: copy
Ctrl+x: cut
Ctrl+v: paste
Ctrl+Alt+v: open the Paste Special dialog box (if clipboard is nonempty)
Formatting
F4: enter dollar signs for an absolute address (or keep pressing to cycle
through relative/absolute possibilities)
Ctrl+a: display the Function Window after starting a formula and typing a
function name
Shift+F3: display the Insert Function dialog box (same as clicking the f x
button)
Miscellaneous
F2: display the formula in a selected cell (instead of looking the Formula
bar)
Ctrl+Enter: press after entering something in a cell to stay in the same cell
(This shortcut combination can also be used to copy; see the Copying and
Pasting worksheet.)
Alt+Enter: press while entering text in a cell to force a new line (for long
labels)
Cell borders often add a nice formatting touch to a worksheet, but they are
trickier to implement than you might expect. An easy way to add a border is
to select a cell or range of cells and click the Borders dropdown in the Font
group on the Home ribbon. (It's right above the word Font.) The icons in this
group indicate the type of border you will get.
Alternatively, you can select a cell or range of cells, right-click, select Format
Cells, and select the Borders tab to get the dialog box shown to the right.
Then the trick is to select the options in the right order, and it is easy to do it
wrong. Here is how I got the borders for the three ranges to the right.
For Range 1, I clicked the Outline preset to get the basic border. Then I
clicked a line style, a color, and finally the "bottom" border icon to get the
bottom blue border. This last part wouldn't have worked if I had clicked the
"bottom" border icon first and then the line style and color, and this can be a
source of frustration.
For Range 2, I didn't use a preset. I first chose a line style and a color, and
then I clicked the "left," "top," and "right" border icons. With the dialog still
open, I chose another line style and another color, and I then clicked the
"bottom" border icon. As before, I had to select a line style and color first,
before clicking the border icons.
For Range 3, I used both the Outline and Inside presets. Then I chose a line
style and a color, and finally clicked the two "middle" border icons.
An easy way to get rid of any of these borders is to select the range, get into
the Border dialog, and click the None preset. Alternatively, you can do it from
the Borders dropdown on the Home ribbon. You can either select No Border,
or you can select Erase Border. In the latter case, the cursor becomes an Range 1
eraser, and you can erase the borders you don't want. Then press Esc to get
out of erase mode.
Try it! Select ranges below the ranges to the right, and format them the same
as those above them. Then get rid of the borders you just created.
Range 2 Range 3
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
The Illustrations group on the Insert ribbon includes several types of items
you can add to a worksheet. These include a wide variety of shapes, such
as rectangles and arrows. These shapes are quite easy to use. You just click
any of them and then drag it to the location you want.
Try it! Insert a rectangle and modify it so that it looks like the rectangle to
the right, including the text inside. Then modify the shape of your
rectangle so that it has rounded corners.
One nice feature of shapes is that if you want to use arrows to connect
rectangles, for example, there are "hot spots" on the sides of the
rectangles for connecting. If you start and end the arrows on these hot
spots, the arrows will move with the rectangles when you move the
rectangles.
Try it! Draw two or more rectangles and connect them with arrows,
connecting to the hot spots. Then move the rectangles and watch how the
arrows move with them.
The other items in the Illustrations group act similarly, and you can
experiment with them. For example, you can insert an image from a
picture file and then manipulate it with the Picture Tools Format ribbon
that appears when you select the image.
Try it! Each of the screenshots to the right is the image of a picture file.
Select any of them and check the possibilities on the resulting Picture
Tools Format ribbon.
Illustration Group on Insert Ribbon Drawing Tools Format Ribbon for modifying a shape
A cool shape!
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Click a row number and drag down as many rows as you want to insert.
Then right-click and select Insert. Alternatively, you can click the Insert
dropdown on the Home ribbon and select Insert Sheet Rows.
(Interestingly, this Insert dropdown is on the Home ribbon, not on the
Insert ribbon.)
The rows you insert are inserted above the first row you selected. For
example, if you select rows 8 through 11 and then insert, four blank rows
will be inserted between the old rows 7 and 8.
Try it! Insert blank rows for the data below for Feb, Apr, and May.
You can insert columns in exactly the same way. The keyboard shortcut is
Alt+i and then c.
Click a row number and drag down as many rows as you want to delete.
Then right-click and select Delete. Alternatively, you can click the Delete
dropdown on the Cells group of the Home ribbon and select Delete Sheet
Rows.
If you prefer a keyboard shortcut, press Alt+e and then d (e for edit, d for
delete).
Try it! Delete the rows you inserted in the above exercise.
You can delete columns in exactly the same way. In fact, the keyboard
shortcut is still Alt+e and then d.
Then right-click and select Delete. Alternatively, you can click the Delete
dropdown on the Cells group of the Home ribbon and select Delete Sheet
Rows.
If you prefer a keyboard shortcut, press Alt+e and then d (e for edit, d for
delete).
Try it! Delete the rows you inserted in the above exercise.
You can delete columns in exactly the same way. In fact, the keyboard
shortcut is still Alt+e and then d.
You can also hide or unhide rows or columns. The following explains how
to hide or unhide rows. The same directions work for columns.
To hide a group of adjacent rows, click the top row number you want to
hide, hold down the Shift key, and click the bottom row number you
want to hide. This selects the rows you want to hide. (Alternatively, you
can drag the row numbers.) Then right-click and select Hide.
Alternatively, you can click the Hide and Unhide arrow from the Format
dropdown in the Cells group of the Home ribbon, as shown to the right.
From there, click on Hide Rows.
To unhide rows, select the adjacent nonhidden rows. For example, if you
hid rows 69-75, you would select rows 68 and 76. Then right-click and
select Unhide, or use the dialog box to the right.
Again, there are leftover menu item shortcuts for hiding and unhiding:
Try it! Hide any subset of the rows in the data set below. Then unhide
them.
Person Age
1 36
2 33
3 49
4 25
5 21
6 46
7 27
8 35
9 22
10 27
11 37
12 36
13 21
14 35
15 39
16 48
17 35
18 38
19 36
20 44
21 34
22 50
23 44
24 41
25 43
26 48
27 29
28 34
29 22
30 28
Hide and Unhide items from Home ribbon
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Worksheets are where you place your data and formulas in Excel. Many
people call them "sheets" but this isn't exactly accurate. Strictly speaking, a
worksheet is a sheet that has rows and columns--a rectangular grid of cells.
There is another kind of sheet, called a chart sheet. This type of sheet has no
rows or columns, only a chart. The discussion here is mainly about
worksheets, not chart sheets. The actions discussed below are things you will
do every day, so you need to know how to do them efficiently.
Renaming a Worksheet
The name of a worksheet appears in its tab at the bottom of the screen.
To rename a worksheet:
Try it! Rename this worksheet as Worksheet Tasks. Then change its name
back to Topic.
Click the button to the right of your rightmost worksheet tab, the one
shown to the right. (It was a different icon in Excel 2007 and 2010.) This
creates a new worksheet to the right of the rightmost sheet with a generic
name such as Sheet3, which you can then rename.
In some situations, you might not want the new sheet to be way out to the
right. There is another option. You can right-click a worksheet tab, select
Insert, and select a blank worksheet as the item to add. The new
worksheet will be placed to the left of the tab you right-clicked.
Try it! Create a new worksheet to the left of this one and rename it
Practice1.
Selecting One or More Worksheets
You can select one or more worksheets. The active worksheet is the one
you are viewing. Its tab is boldfaced. But others can be selected as well. If
you do anything to the active worksheet, such as format a cell or enter a
value, the same thing is done to all of the selected worksheets. This can
save a lot of time with common labels, formulas, and formatting.
Click the tab of the leftmost of these, hold down the Shift key, and click
the tab of the rightmost of these.
Click the tab of any of them, hold down the Ctrl key, and click the other
tabs you want to select.
When multiple worksheets are selected, one will be active, but the tabs
of the others will also be highlighted, indicating that they are selected.
(In Excel 2013, the active sheet's tab is green; the others are black.) They
will remain selected until you click the tab of some other worksheet.
There is one exception to this. If all of the worksheets are selected, you
can click any other worksheet tab to activate it and deselect all of the
others.
Try it! You should already have a Practice1 worksheet. Create several
more new worksheets to its right and rename them Practice2, Practice3,
and so on. Then select them all and enter the label "This is practice" in
cell A1 of the active worksheet, Practice1. By viewing the other Practice
worksheets, you should see that they all have this label in cell A1. Finally,
activate the worksheet you are reading now (Topic). This deselects the
Practice worksheets.
You can delete one or more worksheets. However, if you try to delete all of
the worksheets, Excel will warn you that at least one has to remain.
Select the ones you want to delete, as explained in the previous text box.
Then right-click any of the selected tabs. This brings up a context-sensitive
menu, which has a few options you might want to try. For now, select
Delete.
Note that if the worksheets have any contents, you will be asked if you really
want to delete them. Deleting worksheets can be dangerous because it
cannot be undone. So be careful!
menu, which has a few options you might want to try. For now, select
Delete.
Note that if the worksheets have any contents, you will be asked if you really
want to delete them. Deleting worksheets can be dangerous because it
cannot be undone. So be careful!
You can also move or copy a worksheet. You can do this in one of two
ways: by dragging tabs or through the Move or Copy menu item. The first
way is easier; the second gives you more options.
Drag the worksheet's tab right or left to the position you want. If you
hold down the Ctrl key while you are dragging, you will make a copy of
the worksheet.
Try it! Move this worksheet to some other position, and then move it
back again. Next, make a copy of this worksheet, just to the right of its
current position. The copy will have the name Topic (2), which you can
then rename if you want. For now, delete the copy.
Right-click the worksheet's tab and select Move or Copy, as shown to the
right. This brings up the Move or Copy dialog that lets you select the Move or Copy menu item
workbook you want to move or copy to, including a new workbook, the
position within that workbook, and whether you want to create a copy. If
you select a different workbook and don't check the latter option, the
worksheet will be removed from the current file; it will move to the other
workbook. So be careful.
Try it! If necessary, create a new worksheet called Practice and enter
some data in it. Then move it to a new workbook. It will disappear from
this workbook and appear in a new one. You can then close the new
workbook without saving to delete it.
Finally, you can hide or unhide a worksheet. For example, you might
want to hide, but not delete, a worksheet that contains technical data
used in formulas in other worksheets. Of course, you might receive such
a file, with formulas you can't figure out because they refer to data on a
hidden worksheet. If you sense that something mysterious is going on,
check whether there are any hidden worksheets!
To hide a worksheet:
To hide a worksheet:
To unhide a worksheet:
Note: It is possible that there is at least one hidden worksheet even if the
Unhide option is disabled. By using a macro, it is possible to set the
status of a worksheet to "very hidden." Such worksheets can be
unhidden only through another macro. Software companies sometimes
create very hidden worksheets because they know these worksheets
would only confuse users, or because they don't really want users to see
their contents.
In pre-2013 versions of Excel, there are two buttons at the lower left corner
of the Excel window for going to the left through the worksheets. The second
takes you to the previous worksheet, and the first takes you the whole way
back to the first (leftmost) worksheet. Similarly, there are two buttons for
going to the right. Starting in Excel 2013, there are only two buttons, one for
going to the previous worksheet and one for going to the next worksheet.
Fortunately, if you press the Ctrl key and one of these newer buttons, it takes
you to the first or last worksheet. This can save plenty of scrolling if you have
dozens of worksheets, so it is definitely a tip worth remembering!
New Sheet button
Move or Copy menu item Move or Copy dialog box
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
The usual situation is that you have a data set such as the one to the
right. If you want to perform a simple sort on any of its columns, select Person
any single data cell in this column and click the A-Z or the Z-A button. You 1
can find these buttons under the Sort & Filter dropdown on the Home 2
ribbon, and they are also on the Data ribbon. But because they are used
so often, you probably ought to add them to your Quick Access Toolbar 3
so that they are always available. 4
5
Try it! Sort on any of the columns to the right, either in A-Z or Z-A order.
Note that when you sort on any column such as Salary, the other columns 6
change accordingly. That is, each row remains intact. Of course, this is the 7
behavior you would expect and want. 8
You can undo a sort, but just in case, it is often nice to have an "ID" 9
column with consecutive integers, 1, 2, 3, etc. This is the role of the 10
Person column in this data set. No matter how many sorts you do, you
can return to the original sort order by sorting (A-Z) on Person. 11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Sorting the Correct Range
20
The above instructions said to select a single cell before you click A-Z or Z-A. If 21
you select a range, such as the entire State column, and then click A-Z or Z-A, 22
you will be asked if you want to expand the selection (meaning to the full data
set) or continue with the current selection. You almost always want to expand
the selection. If you continue with the current selection, only the Salary values
will be sorted, and the sorted salaries will not correspond to the right people.
Excel gives you many more sort possibilities with its Custom Sort item
under the Sort & Filter items (on both the Home and Data ribbons). When
you click either of these, you seel the Custom Sort dialog box to the right
where, among other things, you can add levels. The data set above
illustrates why you might want to do this. Suppose you want to sort so
that all of the females are at the top. Then within each gender, you would
like to sort in A-Z order on State. Then if there are multiple people of a
given gender in the same state, you would like to sort them in decreasing
order of Salary. This is possible only with a custom sort with three levels:
first Gender, then State, then Salary. The correct settings for this sort are
shown to the right.
under the Sort & Filter items (on both the Home and Data ribbons). When
you click either of these, you seel the Custom Sort dialog box to the right
where, among other things, you can add levels. The data set above
illustrates why you might want to do this. Suppose you want to sort so
that all of the females are at the top. Then within each gender, you would
like to sort in A-Z order on State. Then if there are multiple people of a
given gender in the same state, you would like to sort them in decreasing
order of Salary. This is possible only with a custom sort with three levels:
first Gender, then State, then Salary. The correct settings for this sort are
shown to the right.
Try it! Sort the above data set as explained in the previous paragraph.
Check that it works as intended.
Try it again! This time have the three levels be Salary, then State, then
Gender. Do you see the difference? There are no ties on Salary, so once
Salary is sorted, no more sorting takes place. In general, the lower levels
apply only when there are ties in the levels above them.
Grade
Sorting Text A+
A
Sorting columns of text can be tricky, especially when non-alphabetic
symbols are present. For example, sort in A-Z order on the Grade column A-
to the right. Is this what you expected? Probably not. (See the next text B+
box for a fix.) B
What about the Name column to the right, where some names are upper B-
case and some are lower case? By default, the sort order is case-insentive, C+
that is, case doesn't matter. Try sorting on Name with the A-Z button. They C
are indeed sorted in alphabetical order, except that the Name label got
sorted too. (Press Ctrl+z to undo this sort.) To prevent the label getting C-
sorted, bring up the Custom Sort dialog box and check the "My data has D+
headers" option.
D
While you are in Custom Sort dialog box, note the Options button at the D-
top. One option is to check or uncheck the "Case sensitive" box. It is F
probably unchecked by default. However, check it and then sort on the
Name column to the right. It is still sorted in alphabetical order, ignoring
case. This appears to be a bug in Excel, or at least it's unexpected.
Order
Creating a Custom List for Sorting 1
2
Sometimes you want to sort in a "natural" order, such as months in a year 3
(Jan, Feb, etc.) or days of the week (Sun, Mon, etc.). You can do this with
a custom list. To get to this option, bring up the Custom Sort dialog box, 4
click the Order dropdown, and select Custom List. (You can also get to the 5
Custom Lists dialog box from the Advanced group in Excel Options.) As
shown to the right, you will see several custom lists built into Excel: the 6
months of the year and the days of the week, either three-letter
abbreviations or written out. You can also click NEW LIST and enter your
own custom list. This new custom list is remembered on your PC for later
uses.
Sometimes you want to sort in a "natural" order, such as months in a year
(Jan, Feb, etc.) or days of the week (Sun, Mon, etc.). You can do this with
a custom list. To get to this option, bring up the Custom Sort dialog box,
click the Order dropdown, and select Custom List. (You can also get to the
Custom Lists dialog box from the Advanced group in Excel Options.) As
shown to the right, you will see several custom lists built into Excel: the
months of the year and the days of the week, either three-letter 7
abbreviations or written out. You can also click NEW LIST and enter your 8
own custom list. This new custom list is remembered on your PC for later
uses. 9
10
You will probably create custom lists for sorting only for lists you use 11
frequently. For example, if you are an instructor and typically have a list
of possible grades as in the Grade range above, you might want to create 12
a custom list with the grades in the "natural" order. But if this is a list you 13
need only once, it is easier to enter the grades manually in the order you 14
want them.
15
Try it! Sort on Day, using the built-in custom list. Then create a new 16
custom list with items Morning, Afternoon, Evening, in this order, and
sort on Time using this custom list. 17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
A-Z and Z-A buttons on Data ribbon
You can experiment with the print options. You do have a lot of control
over what is printed and how it looks on the paper. For example, you can
select the bottom dropdown in the dialog box to the right and select Fit
Sheet on One Page to get everything on a single piece of paper.
Note: You might sometimes find that certain objects like text boxes,
buttons, and arrows do not get printed. To remedy this, right-click any
such object, select Size and Properties, and click the Properties tab. This
contains a "Print object" option that you can check or uncheck.
Page tab on Page Setup dialog box Sheet tab on Page Setup dialog box
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
2. There is never any need to type the dollar signs. You can do it with the
F4 key. This is explained in more detail below.
Enter a cell reference such as =B3 in a formula. Then press the F4 key.
In fact, if you press the F4 key repeatedly, you cycle through the
possibilities: B3 (neither row nor column fixed), then $B$3 (both column B
and row 3 fixed), then B$3 (only row 3 fixed), then $B3 (only column B
fixed), and back again to B3.
Try it! Enter the appropriate formula in cell L35 and copy across to O35.
(Scroll to the right to see the answer.)
Units sold
50 100 150 200
Unit price $3.25
$3.50
$3.75
$4.00
$4.25
Fixed cost
Variable cost
Month
Units produced
Total cost
Unit price
$50
$2
Units sold
50 100 150 200
$3.25 $162.50 $325.00 $487.50 $650.00
$3.50 $175.00 $350.00 $525.00 $700.00
$3.75 $187.50 $375.00 $562.50 $750.00
$4.00 $200.00 $400.00 $600.00 $800.00
$4.25 $212.50 $425.00 $637.50 $850.00
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
You might not even think about it, but Excel is an amazing calculation
engine. Not only does it calculate a formula as soon as you enter it, but it
recalculates everything that is affected by any changes you make in any
cell or range of any worksheet. This behavior is called Automatic
recalculation, and it is the behavior you are accustomed to in Excel.
Click the Calculation Options dropdown from the Formulas ribbon and
select any of the three options shown to the right.
With the Automatic Except for Data Tables setting, data tables will not
recalculate until you force it to. This is useful because data tables can
sometimes take a long time to recalculate. (Data tables are discussed in
another topic of this tutorial.)
Forcing a Recalculation
The easiest and most common way to force a recalculation is to press the F9
key. This is often called the "recalc" key. You can also click the Calculate Now
button or the Calculate Sheet button, both on the Formulas ribbon (see the
above screenshot). Calculate Now recalculates all formulas in the workbook.
Calculate Sheet recalculates only the formulas in the active worksheet.
Inheritance
3. Launch Excel again, and open CalcTest1. Its Calculation setting will still
be Manual. Then open CalcTest2. Even though this file was saved with
the Automatic setting, its setting now will be Manual. Save CalcTest2,
and then close both files and Excel.
4. Launch Excel once more, and open CalcTest2. Its Calculation setting
will now be Manual.
The upshot of all of this is that if you change the Calculation setting to a
non-Automatic setting for one file, later files you open in this session will
inherit the non-Automatic setting, which can produce unexpected
results. (You'll be asking, Why won't anything recalculate??) Worse yet, if
you save any of these later files, their non-Automatic setting will be
saved, which will likely cause unexpected results down the road.
The SUM function is used so often to sum across rows or columns that a
button (the S button) is available to automate the procedure. This button
is on the Home ribbon and the Formulas ribbon, as shown to the right.
To illustrate its use, suppose you have a table of numbers in some AutoSum button on Formu
rectangular range. You want row sums to appear to the right of the range,
and you want column sums to appear below the range. This is easy.
Select the range(s) where you want the sums to appear and click the
AutoSum button.
Note that if you select multiple cells, you get the sums automatically. If
you select a single cell, such as when you have a single column of
numbers to sum, you are shown the sum formula for your approval,
and you have to press Enter to actually enter it.
Try it! Use the AutoSum button to fill in the row and column sums in the 51
gray cells to the right, including the darker gray cell which should show 37
the sum of all the data.
13
73
38
94 15 7
6 2 41
83 29 88
64 46 32
11 3 80
Range names are used for one basic purpose: to make your formulas
more readable. After all, which formula do you prefer: =B20-B21 or
=Revenue-Cost? Efficient use of range names takes some experience, but
this worksheet provides a few useful tips.
A range name can be applied to a single cell or to any range of cells. There
are a few rules for the names you can use. The most important are that
(1) the names cannot include a few "illegal" characters, the most common
being spaces, and (2) they can't look like cell addresses. For example,
DAN37 is illegal because DAN37 is a cell address.
You can definitely go overboard in the use of named ranges, and you can
err in the other direction by refusing to use them. You should use some
discretion (and possibly company policy) when deciding how extensively
to use range names.
Range names have been available for many years, but they are more
prominent in Excel 2007 and later versions. Their functionality is in the
Defined Names group, right in the middle of the Formula ribbon, as
shown to the right.
The easiest and best-known way to name a range is to use the Name box,
just to the left of the Formula bar. This is shown to the right, where the
Name box originally contains a cell address.
Select a range you want to name, which can be a single cell, click in the
Name box, type a range name, and press Enter. Don't forget to press Enter
after typing the range name or the name you type won't "stick." 71
15
Try it! Name the gray range to the right Data. 14
The Name box is also useful for finding named ranges. To do so, click the 40
dropdown arrow in the Name box to see a list of all range names, and click 28
one of them. This will select the corresponding range. 41
28
You get much more control of named ranges by clicking the Name Manager
on the Formulas ribbon. This displays the dialog box to the right. It shows a
Name Manager dialog box
Using the Name Manager
You get much more control of named ranges by clicking the Name Manager
on the Formulas ribbon. This displays the dialog box to the right. It shows a
list of all range names in your workbook, the values in these ranges, and the
corresponding range addresses. You can select any range name and then Edit
or Delete it. (Delete doesn't delete the contents of the range; it only deletes
the range name.) You can also click the New button to create a new named
range. In this case, you need to supply a name and an address.
Try it! Rename the above gray range of numbers MyData. Then delete the
MyData range name. Then use the Name Manager to create the Data range
name again.
Suppose you have the labels such as Revenue, Cost, and Profit in some
range, and you would like the adjacent cells (which will contain the values
of revenue, cost, and profit) to have these range names. There is a very Create Names from Selecti
quick way to do this.
Select the range consisting of the labels and the cells to be named. Then
click the Create from Selection button in the Defined Names group on the
Formulas ribbon. In the resulting dialog box, make sure the appropriate
option (in this case, Left Column) is checked, and click OK. Excel tries,
usually successfully, to guess where the labels are that you want to use as
range names. You can always override its guess.
Try it! Name each of the colored ranges to the right (but not the totals)
with the labels above them. You will notice that Excel guesses Top row and
Left column. You can uncheck Left column unless you want the rows to be
named by the month names.
If you create range names and then create formulas that reference these
ranges, Excel uses the range names automatically. Sometimes, however,
you do it in the opposite order. That is, you enter a formula using cell
addresses, such as =B20-B21, and later you name B20 as Revenue and
B21 as Cost. The formula does not change to =Revenue-Cost
automatically. However, you can make it change, and hence become more
readable, as follows.
Select Apply Names from the Define Name dropdown in the Defined
Names group, as shown to the right. Then select all range names that you
want to apply to any cell formulas. For example, if you select all range
you do it in the opposite order. That is, you enter a formula using cell
addresses, such as =B20-B21, and later you name B20 as Revenue and
B21 as Cost. The formula does not change to =Revenue-Cost
automatically. However, you can make it change, and hence become more
readable, as follows.
Select Apply Names from the Define Name dropdown in the Defined
Names group, as shown to the right. Then select all range names that you
want to apply to any cell formulas. For example, if you select all range
names in the list, all formulas that reference any of these named ranges
will change to show the corresponding range names.
Try it! You should now have the range names UnitsSold and Revenue for
the red and orange ranges to the above right. Apply these to all formulas
that reference them, that is, to the SUM formulas in darker red and
orange cells.
If you have many range names, it is often useful to show a list of them and
the range addresses they apply to. This is easy.
Select a cell with plenty of blank space below it, select the Use in Formula
dropdown in the Defined Names group, and click the Paste Names option, as
shown to the right.
Try it! Paste a list of all range names, starting in the gray cell to the right.
Defined Names group in Formulas ribbon
31 9 69 5
74 46 84 27
49 25 38 83
43 20 75 83
72 30 92 75
56 90 89 73
81 43 81 61
Name Manager dialog box
There are times when you will receive a spreadsheet from a colleague
and you will have absolutely no idea how its various cells are related.
Where are the constants? Where are the formulas? How do the formulas
incorporate the constants? How do the formulas build upon one
another? In these very common situations, Excel's auditing tools can be a
huge help. They let you find the precedents and dependents of any
particular cell, defined as follows.
1. The precedents of any cell that contains a formula are all cells
referenced by the formula in that cell. (If a cell doesn't contain a formula,
it doesn't have any precedents.)
2. The dependents of any cell are all cells with formulas that reference
that cell.
The Formula Auditing group on the Formulas ribbon, shown to the right,
has buttons for tracing precedents and dependents. If you select a cell
and click Trace Precedents, you will see arrows from all of the cell's
precedents to it. If you click Trace Dependents, you will see arrows from
the cell to all of its dependents. You can then click the Remove Arrows
button to get rid of these arrows.
You can do this multiple times. For example, if you show a cell's
dependents and then click Trace Dependents again, you will see all of the
dependents' dependents.
Note that many spreadsheets in real businesses have cells that aren't
related to anything. That is, they have no precendents or dependents.
Typically, this is not good. It could mean that the constants in these cells
are "hard-coded" (entered as constants) in one or more formulas, which
is always a bad practice. It could also mean that these constants have
been incorporated in the model with "mental arithmetic" rather than
formulas, another bad practice. See if you can find examples of such
"dangling" constants in the example to the right. Then incorporate them
with appropriate formulas.
Keyboard Shortcuts for Tracing Precedents and Dependents
If you like keyboard shortcuts, these are a few you will really appreciate.
Instead of using arrows to indicate precedents and dependents, these
shortcuts select cells that are precedents and dependents.
Ctrl+Shift+[ : select all precedents, direct and indirect, of the selected cell
Ctrl+Shift+] : select all dependents, direct and indirect, of the selected cell
Try it! Use these keyboard shortcuts in the above model to better
understand the relationships.
Adding a Watch
The Formula Auditing group also contains a Watch Window button. You can
click it to add a watch on any cell (or cells). The screenshot to the right
shows how a watch was added to the profit cell on this worksheet. This is
particularly useful for large models (unlike the small model here) where you
can't see your inputs and outputs all at once on the same screen. Once this
watch is added, you keep the window open and enter values for various
inputs to see how profit changes. If it doesn't change at all, or if it doesn't
change in the way you expect, you can examine your formulas for errors.
Try it! Add watches on total revenue, total cost, and profit. Then watch how
they change in the Watch Window as you change inputs such as average
revenue per order or the response rate.
Showing Formulas
A common wish is to see all of the formulas, not their values. This is easy. Just
click the Show Formulas button in the Formula Auditing group. This button is
actually a toggle between values and formulas. Equivalently, you can use
keyboard shortcut Ctrl+~.
Try it! Click the Show Formulas button to see all formulas in the model. Then
click this button again to show the values. Note that the columns expand
when you show formulas, but fortunately, they revert back to their original
widths when you show values.
keyboard shortcut Ctrl+~.
Try it! Click the Show Formulas button to see all formulas in the model. Then
click this button again to show the values. Note that the columns expand
when you show formulas, but fortunately, they revert back to their original
widths when you show values.
List of Topics sheet
Profit model
Unit printing cost $0.10
Unit mailing cost $0.15
Variable cost of printing and mailing $0.25
Number mailed 100000
Response rate 3%
Number of responses 3000
Watch window
1. To create a chart, use the Insert ribbon. It has a Charts group with
buttons for Column, Line, Pie, Bar, Area, Scatter, and Other Charts (see to
the right). Each button has a dropdown list for the various subtypes.
Starting in Excel 2013, there is even has a Recommended Charts button
for guessing the most appropriate type of chart for your specific data.
2. Once you have a chart and then select it you get two Chart Tools tabs,
Design and Format, shown to the right. The corresponding ribbons have
plenty of buttons for modifying an existing chart. Probably the most
important of these is the Select Data button on the Design ribbon. It lets
you edit the data range(s) the chart is based on. Of course, you can
experiment with the other buttons, and you can also experiment by
right-clicking various parts of a chart to see many possibilities.
Charts group on Insert ribbon in Excel 2016
Probably the easiest way to create a chart, based on a given data set, is to
select the data set, including the data to be charted and the labels for the
horizontal axis, if any, and select one of the chart types from the Insert
ribbon. You will probably want to modify the resulting chart, but this usually
provides a good start.
The data set to the right is typical. The goal is to create a column chart of
monthly sales, so the entire gray range to the right was selected, including
the labels in the top row, and a column chart of the first subtype was chosen
from the Insert ribbon. The only change that was then made to the chart was
to delete the legend. (Even this is not necessary in Excel 2013. It doesn't add
a legend for a single series.) Excel guessed correctly that it should chart one
series, Sales, and that it should use the dates in column K as labels for the
horizontal axis.
Here is another example. The data set to the right includes monthly sales of two
products, and the goal is to create a line chart that contains both series. In this
case, the entire gray range was selected, and a line chart with markers was
chosen from the Insert ribbon. This time, a legend is appropriate. However,
there was no title above the chart by default, so the one shown was entered (by
selecting the title and then typing a new title in the formula bar).
The most important concept for charts is a series. Every Excel chart contains
one or more series. In the first chart above, there is one series, Sales. In the
second chart above, there are two series, Sales1 and Sales2. Typically, each
series is a column of data, with a label at the top. However, series are
sometimes in rows, as in the example to the right. Again, you can select the
entire gray range and insert a line chart. Excel guesses correctly that the data
series are in rows, not columns. But what if it makes the wrong guess? See the
next example.
sometimes in rows, as in the example to the right. Again, you can select the
entire gray range and insert a line chart. Excel guesses correctly that the data
series are in rows, not columns. But what if it makes the wrong guess? See the
next example.
Switching the Roles of Rows and Columns and Changing the Chart Type
The data set to the right contains sales data for four products in six
regions. You can select the entire gray range and insert a line chart. But
what are the series? By default, Excel creates a line for each product, with
the region labels on the horizontal axis. That is, it guesses that the columns
are the series. Suppose you would rather have the rows as the series, that
is, you would rather have a line for each region. This is easy.
Select the chart and click the Switch Row/Column button on the Chart
Tools Design ribbon.
Try it! Create a column chart of the first subtype for the monthly data in
the gray range to the right, where each series corresponds to a time series
for a particular product.
Sometimes you change your mind and want to have another chart type.
Select the chart and click the Change Chart Type button on the Chart Tools
Design ribbon.
Try it! Change the column chart you just created to a line chart. Make sure
each series still corresponds to a product.
Sometimes you have two series of very different magnitudes that you want
to plot on a single chart. If you use the same vertical axis for both series,
the one with the smaller magnitudes will be swamped by the other series;
it will barely show up. However, you can plot either series with a secondary
axis, which appears to the right of the chart.
It is actually very easy. The chart to the right plots both sales series on a
single vertical axis, so the much smaller Sales1 series hugs the horizontal
Using a Secondary Axis for a Second Series
Sometimes you have two series of very different magnitudes that you want
to plot on a single chart. If you use the same vertical axis for both series,
the one with the smaller magnitudes will be swamped by the other series;
it will barely show up. However, you can plot either series with a secondary
axis, which appears to the right of the chart.
It is actually very easy. The chart to the right plots both sales series on a
single vertical axis, so the much smaller Sales1 series hugs the horizontal
axis. To create a secondary axis, right-click the series you want on the
secondary axis, select Format Data Series, and select the Secondary Axis
option.
Try it! Using the chart to the right, put the Sales1 series on a secondary axis.
Note: You can do this with multiple series, but it is most common when
plotting only two series. If there are more than two series and you assign at
least one of them to a secondary axus, it is difficult to tell which series goes
with which axis.
By selecting the appropriate data and then inserting a chart, you usually get
what you want. But suppose you create a chart and it doesn't chart the right
data. You can either delete this chart and start over, or you can modify the
data series.
Select the chart and click the Select Data button on the Chart Tools Design
ribbon. This brings up the Select Data Source dialog box shown to the right,
with the series charted on the left and the data used for the horizontal axis
labels on the right. You can then edit any of these.
Try it! The line chart to right was created by selecting the gray range to the
right, without the labels in the left column or the top row. There are three
problems: (1) the months should be labels on the horizontal axis; (2) the
two "junk" series shouldn't be part of the chart; and (3) the two sales series
should be named by the Sales1 and Sales2 labels in the top row. Open the
Data Series dialog box and fix these problems.
Scatter Charts
One chart type that works a bit differently from the others is the scatter
chart. This type of chart is useful for detecting relationships between two
variables, such as height and weight in the data set to the right.
To create the scatter chart, you can select the gray range to the right and
insert a scatter chart of the first subtype. You can then change the title and
add horizontal and vertical axis titles, as shown. (Excel 2013 doesn't add
Scatter Charts
One chart type that works a bit differently from the others is the scatter
chart. This type of chart is useful for detecting relationships between two
variables, such as height and weight in the data set to the right.
To create the scatter chart, you can select the gray range to the right and
insert a scatter chart of the first subtype. You can then change the title and
add horizontal and vertical axis titles, as shown. (Excel 2013 doesn't add
the legend that was added automatically in previous versions of Excel.) If
you then open the Data Series dialog box by clicking the Select Data
button, you will see that there is one series, Weight. However, if you click
the Edit button for this series, you will see that there is a Y-series and an X-
series.
By default, when you select two columns for a scatter chart, the data in the
rightmost column, in this case Weight, is the Y-axis series, and the other is
the X-axis series. If you want them reversed, you have to go through the
Edit Series dialog box.
Try it! Starting with the scatter chart to the right, change it so that Height is
on the vertical axis and Weight is on the horizontal axis. (If you created axis
titles, you will have to change them manually.)
st of Topics sheet
Month Sales
Jan-13 $8,627 Sales
Feb-13 $5,343 $10,000
Mar-13 $6,244 $9,000
Apr-13 $9,451 $8,000
May-13 $6,698 $7,000
Jun-13 $6,752 $6,000
Jul-13 $5,985 $5,000
Aug-13 $5,586 $4,000
Sep-13 $8,476 $3,000
Oct-13 $9,191
$2,000
Nov-13 $7,242
$1,000
Dec-13 $8,277
$0
Jan-13 Ma r-13 May-13 Jul -13 Sep-13 Nov-13
$10,000
$8,000
$6,000
$4,000
$12,000
$10,000
$8,000
$6,000
$4,000
$2,000
$0
Jan-13 Ma r-13 May-13 Jul -13 Sep-13 Nov-13
Sa l es 1 Sal es 2
$600,000
$400,000
Monthly Sales of Two Products
$1,200,000
$1,000,000
Month Junk1 Junk2 Sales1 Sales2 Select Data Source dialog box
Jan-13 29 27 $2,625 $4,139
Feb-13 74 23 $1,776 $4,955
Mar-13 78 59 $2,537 $2,379
Apr-13 6 12 $4,360 $4,631
May-13 69 2 $3,636 $2,413
Jun-13 62 3 $2,135 $4,187
6000
5000
4000
3000
2000
1000
0
1 2 3 4 5 6
Col umn L Col umn M Col umn N Col umn O
200
150
Weight
300
4 63 162 250
5 63 164
200
6 65 168
7 70 175
150
8 72 199
9 72 215 100
10 76 241
50
0
58 60 62 64 66 68 70 72 74 76
Sep-13 Nov-13
Two Products
Two Products
Two Products
ght
ght
8 70 72 74 76 78
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Chart Types
When you create a chart in Excel, you have to choose the chart type, and
there are plenty to choose from. The most common types, the ones you
have probably used, are column charts, line charts, pie charts, and scatter
charts. There are also several new types of charts introduced in Excel
2016 that you should be aware of. Of course, the appropriate chart type
depends on the type of data you have. For example, line charts are
especially useful for time series data, and scatter charts are useful for
exploring relationships between two columns of data.
This topic briefly explores the various chart types. Based on the
information provided here, you can then experiment with your own data.
Just be aware that it is easy to change the chart type once you have
created a chart. Just select the chart, click the Change Chart Type button
on the Chart Tools Design ribbon, and choose a chart type.Also, you can
modify an existing chart of a given type in an endless number of ways.
Before proceeding, note that when you select your data, you can always
click the Recommended Charts button on the Insert ribbon. This suggests
chart types that might be appropriate for your data, and you can select
any of these.
Column charts (vertical bars) or bar charts (horizontal bars) are useful for
breaking down numeric variables by categories. The example to the right is
typical, where each bar shows the sales for some region. If you have two or
more series, such as Q1 Sales, Q2 Sales, and so on, you can try any of the 2-D
types. However, we don't recommend the 3-D types. Granted, the latter are
fancier, but they often obscure the data. In general, we recommend keeping it
simple (and this goes for the other chart types discussed below as well).
Line Charts
Line charts are especially useful for time series data. The example to the right
shows how monthly sales have changed during a given year. We particularly
like the line chart with markers (the fourth option in the top row), although
you can experiment with the many different options.
Pie Charts
Pie charts are ubiquitous, appearing in magazines, newspapers, and all over
the Web. They play the same roll as column or bar charts for breaking down
data by categories. However, we prefer column or bar charts to any of these
"circular" charts. It is sometimes hard to accurately gauge the relationships
between the various pieces of the pie. For example, is one piece twice as
large as another; three times as large; or what? These comparisons are more
obvious in a column or bar chart.
Scatter charts are used to examine the relationship (if any) between two
columns of data. The example to the right lists the amount spent on culture
and the amount spent on sports for a sample of families. The scatter chart
indicates a negative relationship between these two variables.
A special type of scatter chart, a bubble chart, allows you to add a third
dimension. The bubble chart to the right sizes each bubble in proportion to
the family's salary. To create it, you can start with a regular scatter chart,
then change it to a bubble chart, click the Select Data from the Chart Tools
Design ribbon, and enter the range for the bubble sizes.
Histograms and Box-Whisker Charts (introduced in Excel 2016)
A histogram is a special type of column chart for showing the distribution
of data. The data are first "binned," that is, separated into categories,
and then the histogram shows the count (or percentage) of values in
each bin. The Excel histograms use automatic bins, depending on the
number of data values, but you can right-click the horizontal axis values,
select Format Axis, and modify the bins in a number of ways. For the
salary data to the right, four bins were chosen automatically, with the
limits shown on the horizontal axis. Regardless of the exact bins chosen,
however, the histogram shows that salaries are skewed to the right.
Box and Whisker charts are useful for comparing the distributions of
some variable across two or more groups. The example to the right
compares salaries of males and females. The height of each box extends
from the first to the third quartiles (the middle half of the data), the line
inside the box is the median, the x inside the box is the mean, and the
lines from the box indicate the lows and highs of the data. (More precise
definitions can be found in statistics books.) This particular chart clearly
indicates that male salaries tend to be higher and more spread out than
female salaries.
A special type of histogram is the Pareto chart (the second button in the
top row of options). It is useful for showing the number, and cumulative
number, of "events" from different causes. The example below and to
the right shows the number of failures from various causes. The bars in a
Pareto chart always decrease from left to the right, so that the most
likely causes are to the left.
Hierarchy Charts (introduced in Excel 2016)
The two chart types in this category, Treemap charts and Sunburst charts, are
used to break down a numeric variable by categorical variables. The example
to the right breaks down average salary by gender and state. You can use
these "fancy" charts if you like, but we prefer simpler charts such as column
charts to show the comparisons.
A waterfall chart is useful for showing changes, usually over time, from some
initial value. The example to the right shows how a company's monthly cash
balances have changed over the year, starting with a balance of $50,000.
This group also includes stock charts, which are useful for showing the
Waterfall Charts (introduced in Excel 2016)
A waterfall chart is useful for showing changes, usually over time, from some
initial value. The example to the right shows how a company's monthly cash
balances have changed over the year, starting with a balance of $50,000.
This group also includes stock charts, which are useful for showing the
movement of stock prices over time.
Combo Charts
A combo chart lets you graph two or more series with different chart types.
The example to the right, using the default options for the first combo chart
type, uses a column chart for 2015 sales and a line chart for 2016 sales. Of
course, you can then change either of these chart types.
You can try these chart types if you like, but we don't recommend them. If
your goal is to explain the data in the clearest possible way -- and this should
be your goal! -- then some other chart type is almost surely a better option.
Region Sales
North $50,000 Sales
South $90,000 $100,000
$90,000
East $30,000 $80,000
West $80,000 $70,000
$60,000
$50,000
$40,000
$30,000
$20,000
$10,000
$0
North South East We
Sales
West
East
South
North
$0 0 0 0 0 0 0
00 00 00 00 00 00 0
10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 0,
$ $ $ $ $ $ $7
South
North
$0 00
0
00
0
00
0
00
0
00
0
00
0
0
10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 0,
$ $ $ $ $ $ $7
Month Sales
Jan $80,000 Sales
Feb $70,000 $200,000
Mar $90,000 $180,000
$160,000
Apr $120,000
$140,000
May $140,000 $120,000
Jun $160,000 $100,000
Jul $180,000 $80,000
Aug $190,000 $60,000
$40,000
Sep $130,000
$20,000
Oct $110,000 $0
Nov $70,000 Ja n Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug
Dec $60,000
Region Sales
North $50,000 Sales
South $90,000
East $30,000
West $80,000
North South Ea st We st
Culture Sports
$1,020 $990 Expenses on Sports Vs Expenses on Cu
$1,100 $460 $2,000
$900 $780 $1,800
$1,000 $860 $1,600
$900 $1,390 $1,400
$820 $1,880 $1,200
$1,000
$1,340 $710
$800
$1,250 $680
$600
$1,190 $1,220
$400
$640 $1,480
$200
$900 $820 $0
$710 $1,080 $600 $700 $800 $900 $1,000 $1,100 $1,200 $1,30
Gender State Avg Salary This chart isn't available in your version of Excel.
Female California $81,400
Female Indiana $62,000 Editing this shape or saving this workbook into a diffe
permanently break the chart.
Female Pennsylvania $59,900
Male California $97,500
Male Indiana $45,200
Male Pennsylvania $45,900
Feb $7,000 Editing this shape or saving this workbook into a diffe
permanently break the chart.
Mar $9,300
Apr $7,000
May $5,900
Jun $2,400
Jul $6,500
Aug $8,000
Sep $9,700
Oct $6,700
Nov $11,900
Dec $6,700
End
h East West
Sales
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
00 00 00 00 00 00 00
40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 00,
$ $ $ $ $ $ $1
0 0 0 0 0 0 0
00 00 00 00 00 00 00
40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 00,
$ $ $ $ $ $ $1
Sales
Ea st We st
Vs Expenses on Culture
Monthly Sales
Sales1
Modifying an Existing Chart $8,627
$5,343
Once you create a chart and ensure that it charts the correct series, you $6,244
are usually still not finished. Just about everything you see on the chart
can be modified to suit your taste or tell the story better. Here are some, $9,451
but certainly not all, of the changes you can make: $6,698
$6,752
1. Add, delete, or change the chart title.
2. Add, delete, or change the axis titles. $5,985
3. Add, delete, or move the legend. $5,586
4. Change the scale, font, alignment, or number format of the axis labels.
5. Add, delete, or change the gridlines. For example, you might want to $8,476
make them lighter or darker. $9,191
6. Change the background color of the plot area, the inner part of the $7,242
chart.
7. Add data labels to points on the chart. $8,277
To make these or other changes, you can use the buttons on the Chart
Tools ribbons, or you can right-click the part of the chart you want to
change to get a context-sensitive menu. From there, it is a matter of
experimenting. It would be a waste of your time to read about all of the
possibilities. Your time would be better spent trying things, as in the
following exercise.
Try it! The top chart to the right was created by selecting the gray data
range to the right and inserting a scatter chart of the first subtype. Then
it was modified to produce the bottom chart. Repeat this exercise by
creating the default scatter chart and then modifying it to look like the
finished version.
If you have trouble, particularly with the March data label, watch the
corresponding video of this topic. Note that this was done in Excel 2013,
where the user interface is different from previous versions of Excel.
$21,007 $25,000
$16,644
$20,000
$21,022
$23,928 $15,000
$31,403 $10,000
$25,333
$5,000
$28,071
$0
$5,000 $5,500 $6,000 $6,500 $7,000 $7,500 $8,000 $8,500 $9,000 $9,500 $10,000
$35,000
Product 2 ($1000s)
$30,000
$25,000
$20,000
$15,000
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0
,0 ,5 ,0 ,5 ,0 ,5 ,0 ,5 ,0 ,5 0,
$5 $5 $6 $6 $7 $7 $8 $8 $9 $9 $1
Product 1 ($1000s)
March
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Month
Changing the Location of a Chart Jan-13
Feb-13
A chart can be placed in one of two locations: on a worksheet, usually the
worksheet that contains the data the chart is based on, or on a separate Mar-13
chart sheet, a sheet that has no rows or columns, only a chart. Some Apr-13
people prefer the first option, and others prefer the second. It is totally a May-13
matter of taste. When you create a chart from the Insert ribbon, the chart
is placed on the worksheet with the data by default. However, it is easy to Jun-13
move it. Jul-13
Aug-13
To change the location of a chart:
Sep-13
Select the chart and click the Move Chart button on the Chart Tools Oct-13
Design ribbon (see below). You can then choose from the above two Nov-13
options.
Dec-13
Try it! Create a chart on this worksheet using the data to the right and
then move this chart to a separate chart sheet. (This chart sheet will have
a name like Chart1, but you can rename it.) Then move the chart back to
this worksheet. Note that when you move the chart back to this
worksheet, the chart sheet will disappear.
Month
Overlapping Charts Jan-13
Feb-13
Some users like to create several charts on the same worksheet and
cascade them, as shown to the right. The problem with this is that only the Mar-13
"front" chart is totally visible. To see all of the charts, you have three Apr-13
options. May-13
1. You can bring one to the front or send one to the back. To do so, right- Jun-13
click either chart and select Send to Front or Send to Back. Note that it Jul-13
isnt enough to select the one in the back. For example, if you select the
Revenue 1 chart to the right, you still won't see it. Aug-13
Sep-13
2. You can move them around so they dont overlap. Oct-13
3. You can move each chart to its own chart sheet, as explained in the text Nov-13
box above. Dec-13
Try it! Use each of these three methods on the two charts to the right.
Finish by putting them back to the cascading positions you currently see.
2. You can move them around so they dont overlap.
3. You can move each chart to its own chart sheet, as explained in the text
box above.
Try it! Use each of these three methods on the two charts to the right.
Finish by putting them back to the cascading positions you currently see.
Sales
$8,627
$5,343
$6,244
$9,451
$6,698
$6,752
$5,985
$5,586
$8,476
$9,191
$7,242
$8,277
Revenue1 Revenue2
$8,627 $268,994 Revenue1
$5,343 $289,135 $10,000
$6,244 $159,351 $9,000
$9,451 $383,878 $8,000 Revenue2
$6,698 $355,345 $7,000 $600,000
$6,752 $444,653 $6,000
$5,985 $110,768 $5,000 $500,000
$5,586 $476,350 $4,000
$400,000
$8,476 $239,177 $3,000
$9,191 $121,368 $2,000 $300,000
$7,242 $472,650
$1,000
$8,277 $332,115 $200,000
$0
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul -13 Sep-13 Nov-13
$100,000
$0
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul -13 Sep-13 Nov-13
$400,000
$3,000
$2,000 $300,000
$1,000
$0 $200,000
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul -13 Sep-13 Nov-13
$100,000
$0
Jan-13 Mar-13 May-13 Jul -13 Sep-13 Nov-13
Nov-13
Sep-13 Nov-13
Nov-13
Sep-13 Nov-13
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Most of the formulas you create in Excel include one or more built-in
Excel functions, such as SUM, IF, VLOOKUP, and many others. Probably no
one, not even the developers at Microsoft, is familiar with all of the Excel
functions, but you should strive to learn, or at least be aware of, as many
as you can.
Excel's functions are grouped into categories, including Financial, Math &
Trig, Date & Time, and others. You can see these categories in the
Function Library group on the Formulas ribbon (see to the right). The
topics in this group of the tutorial illustrate some of the more useful
Excel functions in the various categories.
The names of these functions are capitalized in this tutorial, but this is
only for emphasis. They are not case sensitive. You can enter SUM or Bob
sum or even sUM, all with the same result. 10
5
Some functions are so useful that Excel automatically applies them to
selected ranges (when at least two cells are selected). The results are 13
displayed in the status bar at the bottom of the screen. If you right-click 2
any blank space on the status bar, you can check the functions you want 9
to be visible.
18
Try it! Select any parts of the data to the right (even discontigous ranges) 18
and look at the status bar. Then right-click the status bar and select more
options if you want them. 2
18
Function categories on Formulas ribbon
Mary Jack
6 5
11 7
10 6
15 19
5 20
16 19
15 1
19 10
14 6
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
If you havent used the fx (Insert Function) button located just to the left
of the formula bar, you should give it a try. It not only lists all of the
functions available in Excel, by category, but it also leads you through the
use of them. As an example, suppose you know there is an Excel function
that calculates payments on a loan, but you are not sure what its name is
or how to use it. You can proceed as follows.
Select a blank cell where you want to enter the formula. Click the fx
button and select the category that seems most appropriate, Financial in
this case. Scan through the list for a likely candidate and select it. (Try
PMT.) At this point, you can get help by clicking the "Help on this
function" link, or you can click the OK button and enter the appropriate
arguments for the function: interest rate, term, and principal, the latter
expressed as a negative number. (See screenshots to the right.)
Some people use the fx button as a "crutch" every time they want to
enter an Excel function. You probably shouldn't do this for functions you
know well because it takes more time. However, it is great for learning
how to use functions you are less familiar with.
Try it! Use the fx button to help you determine the function in the gray
cell to the right. (Scroll to the right for the solution.)
You can get the same help from the categories buttons on the Formulas
ribbon. You can scan the list for any category very quickly. In fact, this is a
good way to expand your repertoire of Excel functions. Just look at any of
the lists and ask for help on any that look interesting.
Notethat
Note that the
the PMT
PMT function
functionisis in
in the
the financial
financial
category.In
category. In general,
general, itithas
hasfive
five arguments,
arguments, butbut
thelast
the last two
two are
are optional
optional and
andaren't
aren'tneeded
needed
here. There
here. Thereisis aa minus
minussignsignnext
next toto Principal
Principal
becauseititisispaid,
because paid, not
not received.
received.
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
The SUM function is probably the most used Excel function of all. It sums
all values in one or more ranges.
Actually, it is possible to include more than one range in a SUM formula, Jan
separated by commas. (This can also be done with the COUNT, COUNTA, Feb
AVERAGE, PROLDUCT, MAX, and MIN functions, among others.) For Mar
example, =SUM(B5,C10:D12,Revenues) is allowable, where Revenues is
a range name. The result is the sum of the numeric values in all of these Apr
ranges combined. Again, if any cells in any of these ranges are
nonnumeric or blank, they are ignored. Total cost
Here is a shortcut, which works for any function that takes multiple
ranges, separated by commas. Hold the Ctrl key and then drag the
ranges, one after the other. The commas will be entered for you
automatically.
Try it! Use the SUM function in the above gray cell to calculate the total
of all costs. (Scroll to the right for the answer.)
Student ID
AVERAGE function (Statistical Category) 1533
8031
The AVERAGE function averages all of the numeric cells in a range.
9859
To use the AVERAGE function: 9106
3535
Enter the formula =AVERAGE(range) where range is any range. This
produces the average of the numeric values in the range. 8192
6102
Note that the AVERAGE function ignores labels and blank cells. So, for 6774
example, if the range C3:C50 includes scores for students on an exam, but
cells C6 and C32 are blank because these students havent yet taken the 7558
exam, then =AVERAGE(C3:C50) averages only the scores for the students 314
who took the exam. (It does not automatically average in 0s for the two
who didnt take the exam.) 9082
2397
Try it! Use the AVERAGE function in the two gray cells to the right to 2517
calculate the averages indicated. (For the formula in the lower gray cell,
replicate the exam scores in column M and make some changes. Scroll to 2432
the right for the answers.) 6016
Try it! Use the AVERAGE function in the two gray cells to the right to
calculate the averages indicated. (For the formula in the lower gray cell,
replicate the exam scores in column M and make some changes. Scroll to
the right for the answers.)
5269
4847
6537
9922
4525
1491
7897
PRODUCT function (Math & Trig Category)
4088
You certainly know the SUM function for summing, but you might not be 166
aware that there is a PRODUCT function for multiplying. It works exactly like 7925
the SUM function, that is, all of its arguments are multiplied together. Any
blank or text cells are ignored in the product. Specifically, they are not treated 6405
as 0s. 802
2931
Try it! Find the product of the first six exam scores to the right, including the
Absent value. Then delete the Absent value, that is, make its cell blank. Does 7625
this change the product? 2628
5417
7804
3994
394
8847
7855
8668
3738
5534
6965
8863
8762
6466
6100
1878
5970
9691
8666
4865
6198
8554
6753
9574
3891
8186
1306
6835
3136
4938
4807
4421
able of costs for units produced in one month (along side)
or use in another month (along top)
Exam score Average (only for students who took the exam)
68
74
80 Average (giving 0s to students who were absent)
63
72
Absent
85
70
64
72
81
75
80
73
63
80
88
71
73
71
71
68 Product
82
76
75
81
76
83
67
67
92
72
69
85
78
81
Absent
77
70
71
69
73
60
76
74
67
62
77
91
81
87
76
77
81
Absent
73
83
59
74
74
78
Total cost $47,500
Student ID
1533
8031
9859
9106
3535
8192
6102
6774
7558
314
9082
2397
2517
2432
6016
5269
4847
6537
9922
4525
1491
7897
4088
166
7925
6405
802
2931
7625
2628
5417
7804
3994
394
8847
7855
8668
3738
5534
6965
8863
8762
6466
6100
1878
5970
9691
8666
4865
6198
8554
6753
9574
3891
8186
1306
6835
3136
4938
4807
4421
Exam score With 0s Average (only for students who took the exam)
68 68 74.7586207
74 74
80 80 Average (giving 0s to students who were absent)
63 63 71.0819672
72 72
Absent 0
85 85
70 70
64 64
72 72
81 81
75 75
80 80
73 73
63 63
80 80
88 88
71 71
73 73
71 71
71 71
68 68 Product
82 82 1826012160
76 76
75 75
81 81
76 76
83 83
67 67
67 67
92 92
72 72
69 69
85 85
78 78
81 81
Absent 0
77 77
70 70
71 71
69 69
73 73
60 60
76 76
74 74
67 67
62 62
77 77
91 91
81 81
87 87
76 76
77 77
81 81
Absent 0
73 73
83 83
59 59
74 74
74 74
78 78
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
The COUNT function counts all of the cells in a range with numeric
values. The COUNTA function counts all nonblank cells in a range. For
example, if cells A1, A2, and A3 contain Month, 1, and 2, respectively,
then =COUNT(A1:A3) returns 2, whereas =COUNTA(A1:A3) returns 3. Student
1
To use the COUNT function:
2
Enter the formula =COUNT(range), where range is any range. This 3
returns the number of numeric values in the range.
4
To use the COUNTA function: 5
6
Enter the formula =COUNTA(range), where range is any range. This
returns the number of nonblank cells in the range. 7
8
The COUNTBLANK function counts all blank cells in a range. 9
To use the COUNTBLANK function: 10
11
Enter the formula =COUNTBLANK(range), where range is any range. This 12
returns the number of blank cells in the range.
13
Try it! Use the COUNT, COUNTA, and COUNTBLANK functions to fill in the 14
gray cells to the right. (Scroll to the right for the answers.)
15
Note: Excel uses somewhat different terms on the status bar. If you 16
select a range and right-click the status bar, you will see the two options 17
"Count" and "Numerical Count." The first corresponds to the COUNTA
function, and the second corresponds to the COUNT function. 18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
Exam score Number enrolled
62
73
74 Number who took exam
77
57 Number who were absent
67
90
77
83
71
75
72
82
68
86
77
68
86
80
81
84
71
76
81
99
72
78
67
89
70
77
83
74
87
75
86
77
73
74
79
80
77
72
77
71
70
68
79
75
80
73
61
62
68
92
85
77
79
86
83
83
76
89
72
69
66
71
80
61
Number enrolled
72 or
There are several Excel functions that allow you to count values, or sum or
average values, subject to conditions. Until Excel 2007, this was possible only
for a single condition, such as all people younger than 35 years old, and there
were only two functions available, COUNTIF and SUMIF. In response to
customer demand, Microsoft added four new functions in Excel 2007: Student
AVERAGEIF (for a single condition), and COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, and AVERAGEIFS 1
(for multiple conditions). These are all handy functions, and you should learn
how to use them. 2
3
4
5
6
7
COUNTIF Function (Statistical Category) 8
9
The COUNTIF function counts all values in a specified range that satisfy a 10
certain condition.
11
To use the COUNTIF function: 12
13
Enter the formula =COUNTIF(criterion_range,criterion) in any cell, where
criterion is any expression that evaluates to TRUE or FALSE. This counts 14
all values in criterion_range that satisfy the condition. 15
The criterion can be tricky to specify. If you want a specific value, such as 16
Male, you can specify it as "Male" (double quotes required), or you can 17
use a cell reference such as Q8. Also, if you want a specific inequality, 18
such as younger than 20, you can specify it literally as "<20" (again,
double quotes required). But if you want it to be younger than the value 19
in cell Q9, you need to piece it together as a literal part, "<", and a 20
variable part, whatever is in cell Q9. The correct syntax is "<"&Q9. The 21
ampersand (&) symbol concatenates (pieces together) the two parts. For
example, if you want to count the number of students who are older 22
than then the value in cell Q9, the correct formula is 23
=COUNTIF(M9:M80,">"&Q9). 24
Try it! Use COUNTIF in the top gray cell to the right to find the number of 25
students who scored at least as high as the value in cell Q10. (Scroll to 26
the right for the answer.)
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
SUMIF Function (Math & Trig Category) 36
37
The SUMIF function sums values in one range where a condition in a
corresponding range is satisfied. Usually, the setup is like the example to
the right, where you want to sum or average scores in one column (N), but
only for rows that satisfy a condition in another column (L or M).
The "plural" functions discussed here, COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, and AVERAGEIFS, were added in
Excel 2007. They allow you to impose multiple conditions, such as male and younger than
some value. Their arguments, described in more detail below, include any number of pairs of
criterion ranges and criteria, such as L9:L80,"Male".
The COUNTIFS function counts the number of rows that satisfy all of the conditions.
To use the COUNTIFS function:
Try it! In the top gray cell to the right, find the number of students with the gender in cell
Q8 and age younger than the age cutoff in cell Q9 who scored less than or equal to the
score cutoff in cell Q10. (Scroll to the right for the answer.)
The SUMIFS function is similar in concept to SUMIF, but its syntax is different. (Microsoft
chose this syntax instead of the original SUMIF syntax for logical reasons, but they didn't
want to change the SUMIF syntax because it would have broken too many existing
spreadsheets.) Now the range to sum comes first, and the criteria ranges and criteria
come last.
=SUMIFS(sum_range,criterion_range1,criterion1,criterion_range2,criterion2,...)
Again, the setup is typically like the example to the right. There is a column such as
exam score to sum. The criteria impose conditions on other columns, or even the same
column. Only those rows that meet all of the conditions are part of the sum.
Try it! In the middle gray cell to the right, calculate the total of all scores made by the
gender in cell Q8 and ages younger than the age cutoff in cell Q9. (Scroll to the right for
the answer.)
Try it! In the middle gray cell to the right, calculate the total of all scores made by the
gender in cell Q8 and ages younger than the age cutoff in cell Q9. (Scroll to the right for
the answer.)
The AVERAGEIFS function works just like the SUMIFS function, except that it averages the
values in the the average_range argument.
Try it! Calculate the average in the bottom gray cell to the right, using the same criteria as in
the SUMIFS exercise above. (Scroll to the right for the answer.)
Return to List of Topics sheet
ded in
than
f pairs of
38 Male 18 75
39 Male 20 86
40 Male 21 77
41 Male 20 73
42 Male 20 74
43 Female 20 79
44 Male 18 80
s the 45 Male 20 77
46 Female 21 72
ria as in 47 Male 19 77
48 Male 19 71
49 Female 23 70
50 Female 19 68
51 Female 24 79
52 Male 19 75
53 Male 18 80
54 Female 19 73
55 Female 21 61
56 Female 21 62
57 Male 19 68
58 Male 19 92
59 Female 20 85
60 Male 22 77
61 Female 19 79
62 Male 20 86
63 Female 19 83
64 Male 19 83
65 Male 18 76
66 Female 24 89
67 Female 18 72
68 Female 21 69
69 Male 23 66
70 Male 24 71
71 Male 20 80
72 Female 18 61
COUNTIFS question 18
There are many times when you need to sum products of values in two
(or possibly more than two) same-size ranges. Fortunately, there is a
SUMPRODUCT function that sums products quickly.
By the way, if you are tempted to write the formula without the
SUMPRODUCT function as the sum of nine products, as many beginning
users tend to do, imagine how long your formula would be if there were
10 plants and 50 cities! The SUMPRODUCT function is extremely
efficient, so get used to using it.
List of Topics sheet
Total cost
Total cost 1609.5
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
IF functions are very useful for performing logic, and they vary from simple
to complex. A few typical examples are illustrated here. For each product, if the en
enough units are ordered t
To enter a basic IF function:
units of that product are o
Enter the formula =IF(condition,expression1,expression2), where condition
is any condition that is either true or false, expression1 is the value of the Product
formula if the condition is true, and expression2 is the value of the formula
if the condition is false. 1
2
A simple example is =IF(A1<5,10,NA). Note that if either of the 3
expressions is text, as opposed to a numeric value, it should be enclosed in
double quotes. 4
Try it! Use a nested IF function to get the grades in column M. (Scroll to
the right for answers.)
Try it! Use an IF function with an AND condition to fill in the gray range
for selling to the right. Make sure you use double quotes for text. (Scroll
to the right for answers.) Any student who scores at
which is 1% of their total s
To use an OR condition in an IF function:
The key to writing (and reading) such complex formulas is to pay careful
attention to the parentheses. Fortunately, Excel helps you by color-
coding pairs of parentheses. From now on, pay close attention to this
color coding. You will come to depend on it!
For each product, if the end inventory is less than or equal to 50 units,
enough units are ordered to bring stock back up to 200; otherwise, no
units of that product are ordered
Each student gets an A (if score is 90 or above), S for satisfactory (if score
is 60 or above but less than 90) or U for unsatisfactory if score is below 60
Score Grade
70
95
55
80
60
90
Investor sells stock only if its price has gone up three consecutive days
(including the current day)
Any student who scores at least 95 on any of the exams gets a bonus
which is 1% of their total score.
Grade
S
A
U
S
S
A
Sell?
No
No
Yes
No
Bonus
0
3.2
3.29
3.53
0
0
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Lookup tables are useful when you want to compare a particular value to
a set of values, and depending on where your value falls, return the
appropriate result. For example, you might have a tax table that shows,
for any income, what the corresponding tax is. There are two versions of
lookup tables, vertical (VLOOKUP) and horizontal (HLOOKUP). Because
they are virtually identical except that vertical goes down and horizontal
goes across, only the VLOOKUP function is discussed here. Besides,
VLOOKUP is used much more frequently than HLOOKUP.
Student
Looking Up a Value in a Range (an Approximate Match) 1
2
The most common use of a lookup table is when you want to see where 3
a value fits in a range of values. Then the fourth argument can then be
omitted because its default value is TRUE. For example, suppose you
want to assign letter grades to students based on a straight scale: below
60, an F: at least 60 but below 70, a D; at least 70 but below 80, a C; at
least 80 but below 90, a B; and 90 or above, an A. The lookup table to
the right (columns O and P) shows how you would set this up. The
Looking Up a Value in a Range (an Approximate Match)
The most common use of a lookup table is when you want to see where
a value fits in a range of values. Then the fourth argument can then be
omitted because its default value is TRUE. For example, suppose you 4
want to assign letter grades to students based on a straight scale: below 5
60, an F: at least 60 but below 70, a D; at least 70 but below 80, a C; at 6
least 80 but below 90, a B; and 90 or above, an A. The lookup table to
the right (columns O and P) shows how you would set this up. The 7
comparison column in the lookup table starts at 0 (the lowest grade 8
possible) and then records the cutoff scores 60 through 90.
9
The formula in the gray cell is =VLOOKUP(L43,$O$43:$P$47,2), which is
copied down column M. This formula compares the value in L43 (67) to Order #
the values in column O and chooses the largest value less than or equal
to it. This is 60. Then because the third argument in the VLOOKUP 1
function is 2, the score reported in the gray cell comes from the second 2
column of the lookup table next to 60, namely, D. 3
Try it! For the orders to the right, create a lookup table in columns O and 4
P, and a copyable VLOOKUP formula in column M. Assume there is 5
quantity discount pricing: for orders less than 300 units, the unit price is 6
$3.00; for orders of at least 300 units but less than 400, the unit price is
$2.50; for orders of 400 units or more, the unit price is $2.00. (Scroll to 7
the right for the answer.) 8
Student
Looking for an Exact Match Adams
Davis
In the examples above, it wouldn't make sense to look for an exact match
because there usually isn't one. For example, a typical score such as 67 Edwards
does not exactly match any of the values in the first column of the lookup Johnson
table. However, there are many cases when it does make sense to look for Myers
an exact match. Then there are three things to remember. (1) The fourth
arguments is not optional; it must be FALSE. (2) The first column of the Smith
lookup table doesn't have to be in ascending order; it can be, but order Thomson
doesn't matter. (3) If no exact match exists, the function returns an error.
Williams
Try it! Use a VLOOKUP function in column M to find the gradepoints for
each student, using the lookup table in columns O and P. What happens
with Williams? (Scroll to the right for the answers.)
Note that the grades in column O of the lookup table are in the natural
order, but they are not in Excels A-Z sort order. Therefore, FALSE must be
entered as the fourth argument in the VLOOKUP function. Try it with the
fourth argument TRUE to confirm that you get incorrect results.
Score Grade Lookup table
67 D 0 F
72 C 60 D
77 C 70 C
70 C 80 B
66 D 90 A
81 B
93 A
59 F
90 A
Gradepoints
3
3.7
2.3
2.7
3.3
4
2
#N/A
Williams's grade
Williams's grade (D)
(D) isn't
isn'tin
in th
t
lookup table,
lookup table, so
so an
anerror
error resu
resu
Lookup table
0 $3.00
300 $2.50
400 $2.00
Gradepoints
Williams's grade
Williams's grade (D)
(D) isn't
isn'tin
in the
the
lookup table,
lookup table, so
so an
anerror
error results.
results.
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Try it! In row 11, apply the INT function to the numbers in row 10. (Scroll to
the right for answers.)
The ROUND function rounds a value to the number of decimals you specify.
To use it:
Try it! In row 20, apply the ROUND function to the numbers in row 18, using
the decimals values in row 19. (Scroll to the right for answers.)
List of Topics sheet
INT function
1.7 -3.2 14 -7
ROUND function
100.35 14325 16.3467 154432 0.3569
0 -2 2 -3 1
1.7 -3.2 14 -7
1 -4 14 -7
The ABS function returns the absolute value of a number. To use it:
Try it! In row 10, apply the ABS function to the numbers in row 9. (Scroll to the
right for answers.)
The SQRT function returns the square root of a number. To use it:
Try it! In row 16, apply the SQRT function to the numbers in row 15. (Scroll to the
right for answers.)
The SUMSQ function returns the sum of squares of numbers. To use it:
Try it! In cell P26, calculate the sum of squares of the numbers to its left. (Scroll to
the right for answers.)
List of Topics sheet
ABS function
6 -50 0
SQRT function
64 0.5 -20 0
SUMSQ function
21 43 4 21 35
6 -50 0
6 50 0
64 0.5 -20 0
8 0.707107 Err:502 0
21 43 4 21 35 3972
Alternatively 3972
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
There is also a LOG10 function, which returns the log to the base 10 that you
might have learned in high school. There is also a LOG function, where you
can supply the base. But LN tends to be used in most applications.
EXP function
EXP (Exponential) Function (Math & Trig Category) 1
The EXP function returns the exponential function of a number. That is, if
you apply EXP to some number x, the result is the special number e raised
to the power x, where e is approximately 2.718. In math books, you see
this written as ex.
It turns out that EXP and LN are "inverses" of one another. If you start with
a number x and take EXP of it, and then take LN of the result, you end up
with x. Alternatively, if you start with a (positive) number x and take LN of
it, and then take EXP of the result, you end up with x.
EXP function
-4 2.3 0 15
1023 0.7 1 0 -40
6.930495 -0.35667 0 Err:502 Err:502
Logs aren't
Logs aren't defined
defined for
for 00
or negative
or negativenumbers.
numbers.
1 -4 2.3 0 15
2.718282 0.018316 9.974182 1 3269017
1 -4 2.3 0 15
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
You can enter this formula in as many cells as you like, and each will have a
different random number. Also, these numbers are "live." If you press the
recalc (F9) key, they will all change.
Try it! Enter the RAND function in any cell to the right and copy it to some
range. Then press the F9 key a few times and watch the random numbers
change. (Scroll to the right for some possible live values.)
Until Excel 2007, the RAND function was the only function for generating
random numbers in Excel. Fortunately, another very useful function,
RANDBETWEEN, was added in Excel 2007. It takes two integer arguments
and generates a random integer between these two values (inclusive) so
that all of the possibilities are equally likely. To use it:
Enter the formula =RANDBETWEEN(min,max), where min and max are two
integers (with min less than max).
Try it! Generate random rolls of a die (1 to 6) in several cells to the right.
Then press the F9 key to see how they change randomly. (Scroll to the right
for some possible live values.)
RAND
0.72671 0.660378 0.929445 0.669973 0.856141 0.448785
0.709663 0.010722 0.297684 0.537219 0.912569 0.204959
0.180374 0.160087 0.241601 0.384551 0.803176 0.058504
0.087449 0.317238 0.083321 0.171152 0.729906 0.439633
0.857127 0.180354 0.212282 0.009383 0.40187 0.001966
0.979886 0.382831 0.589731 0.822189 0.309887 0.399062
0.957238 0.690071 0.833852 0.090169 0.554428 0.665825
0.636328 0.755287 0.087427 0.637011 0.370954 0.078325
0.431923 0.878741 0.029835 0.787641 0.496876 0.477259
0.846585 0.315373 0.904592 0.042096 0.548385 0.553065
0.928499 0.404499 0.426547 0.04064 0.695066 0.897309
RANDBETWEEN
4
6
5
1
2
2
4
3
5
2
5
5
6
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
To concatenate, you start with two or more pieces of text and piece them
together. For example, you might concatenate Bob and Jones into Bob
Jones. There are two equivalent ways to concatenate: with the ampersand Bob
(&) symbol and with the CONCATENATE function. Both are described here. Stephen
Andy
Suppose cells A1 and B1 contain text such as a first name and a last name.
To concatenate them with the ampersand symbol, you enter the formula John
=A1&B1 in some other cell such as cell C1. Literal text, such as a comma Kathy
and a space, can also be included, such as =A1&, &B1. In this case, if cell Karen
A1 contains Jones and cell B1 contains Bob, then cell C1 will contain
Jones, Bob. This concatenates the last name, the literal comma and space, Tom
and the first name. In general, you separate the pieces with ampersands, Peter
and you surround literal text with double quotes.
Ted
To concatenate the text in cells A1 and B1 with the CONCATENATE function, Jason
you enter the formula =CONCATENATE(A1,, ,B1). In words, you enter the
pieces you want to concatenate, separated by commas. These pieces can
be cell references or literal text. In the latter case, they should be
surrounded with double quotes.
Try it! Concatenate the first names, middle initials, and last names in
columns K, L, and M with the ampersand symbol so that full names of the
form Jones, Bob E. appear in column N. Do this with again with the
CONCATENATE function in column O. (Scroll to the right for answers.)
Ampersand CONCATENATE
E Jones
C Davis
T Thompson
F Wilson
C Fredericks
D Williams
T Smith
F Jennings
R Benson
E Samson
Ampersand CONCATENATE
Bob E. Jones Bob E. Jones
Stephen C. Davis Stephen C. Davis
Andy T. Thompson Andy T. Thompson
John F. Wilson John F. Wilson
Kathy C. Fredericks Kathy C. Fredericks
Karen D. Williams Karen D. Williams
Tom T. Smith Tom T. Smith
Peter F. Jennings Peter F. Jennings
Ted R. Benson Ted R. Benson
Jason E. Samson Jason E. Samson
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Parsing text, that is, separating it into its pieces, is sometimes easy, and it
is sometimes difficult. The text functions illustrated in the other parsing
topic in this tutorial are for the difficult cases, but this topic discusses an
easy tool that is worth trying first. Suppose you import data from a
legacy system or a Web site, and everything gets imported to a single
column, such as in column K to the right. The pattern is pretty clear: each
cell contains five numbers, all separated by commas. To parse these into
five columns with one number per cell, you can use the Text to Columns
button on the Data ribbon shown to the right. This launches a fairly
simple wizard (basically, the same wizard used for importing a text file),
where you can indicate that the "delimiter" is a comma.
Try it! Select the data in column K and try the Text to Columns wizard.
Note that it places the results in columns K-O, replacing the original data
in column K. If you want to keep the original data for some reason, you
should first make a copy in column L and then parse the copy.
Note: You might see little green triangles in the cells in column K. These
indicate errors, or at least what Excel thinks are errors. If you select any
of these cells, or all of them, you will see a dropdown to the left, which
provides options for dealing with the "errors," including ignoring them.
(They should be ignored in this example.) More generally, if you don't
want Excel to enter these error warnings in the first place--in any of your
workbooks--you can go to the Formulas section of Excel Options and
uncheck the "Enable error background checking" option.
List of Topics sheet
606,360,516,1757,371
1631,1337,1260,1855,2823
904,749,486,1852,1612
2463,1324,1889,2597,312
1256,1839,1745,244,1508
2159,2917,1699,1351,974
1084,2379,1791,1933,507
1686,2454,1954,256,1068
1274,2330,2334,343,255
303,2128,578,824,1714
2989,2317,2196,642,2812
1743,2122,2428,871,2701
2817,2330,1217,407,327
894,1893,1963,1641,2533
2747,1952,243,2832,1487
358,2674,1660,1006,1249
1032,939,2172,2112,347
2639,2489,2905,412,2877
730,696,639,454,1591
1774,2506,2690,2498,2407
2406,493,1457,1317,2993
1359,894,2281,2454,1239
2847,1432,381,1518,941
1597,313,1231,596,702
2838,2547,846,868,1753
2049,558,201,1034,351
1395,1314,1004,489,275
2628,2596,1901,2114,381
1439,1574,2318,277,1202
918,2177,621,1777,2106
867,2906,2844,2173,1370
2314,236,1387,1586,1106
1316,1475,1791,1494,2405
1006,795,1804,861,979
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Suppose that someone has given you a spreadsheet with a list of names
such as the one to the right. Each cell in column K has a last name, then a
comma and a space, and then a first name. Your job is to parse (that is,
separate) these names as indicated for the name in cells L10 and M10.
That is, column L should have all of the first names and column M should
have all of the last names. If this sounds easy, imagine that there are
10,000 names in column K. What would you do? If you just start typing,
you will be busy for a long time, and you will undoubtedly make mistakes
along the way!
Fortunately, there is a much better way. The key is to look for patterns. In
this example, note that every name has a comma and a space. The first
name comes after the comma and space, and the last name comes before
it. For the name "Jones, Bob", there are 10 characters, including the
comma and space, and the comma and space are characters 6 and 7. So
the first name is the rightmost 3 characters and the last name is the
leftmost 5 characters. In any parsing operation, this is the first and the
most crucial step: discover the pattern.
Once you discover the pattern, you can then exploit it with a number of
useful text functions. The ones discussed here are FIND, LEN, RIGHT, LEFT,
and MID. If you want to learn about other text functions, click the Text
dropdown list on the Formulas ribbon.
For example, =LEN("Bobby Jones") returns 11. This includes the space.
These functions return the left, right, or middle characters from a piece of
text, where you indicate the number of characters to return.
Enter the formula =RIGHT(text, n), where n is an integer. This returns the
right n characters in text. (If n is greater than the number of characters in
text, it returns the entire text.)
LEFT, RIGHT, MID Functions (Text Category)
These functions return the left, right, or middle characters from a piece of
text, where you indicate the number of characters to return.
Enter the formula =RIGHT(text, n), where n is an integer. This returns the
right n characters in text. (If n is greater than the number of characters in
text, it returns the entire text.)
Enter the formula =LEFT(text, n), where n is an integer. This returns the
left n characters in text. (If n is greater than the number of characters in
text, it returns the entire text.)
The last example is trickier. As the next text box indicates, the FIND
function in this formula returns 6, the position of the comma, so this
formula is equivalent to =MID("Jones, Bob",8,1). Note that the starting
position is 8, not 7, because of the space.
The FIND function returns the position of the first occurrence of a string
of characters (which could be a single character) in a piece of text.
1. In cell L107, find the length of the text in cell K107 with the LEN
function. This results in 10 in cell L107 because cell K107 has 10
characters, including the comma and space.
2. In cell M107, find the position of the comma with the FIND function.
This results in 6 in cell M107 because the comma in Jones, Bob is the 6th
character.
3. In cell N107, add 1 to find the position of the space after the comma.
This results in 7 in cell N107 because the space is the character right after
the comma.
4. In cell O107, find the first name with the RIGHT function, using the
rightmost (10-7) characters. Make sure you use cell references to enable
copying down.
5. In cell P107, find the last name with the LEFT function, using the
leftmost (6-1) characters. Again, use cell references to enable copying.
The beauty of this method is that you have to do it only once, in the first
row. Then you can copy all of the formulas down for the rest of the
names, even if there are thousands of them!
Try it! Enter the formulas as indicated in the above steps and copy them
down. (Scroll to the right for the correct answers.)
Now try a tougher one. The names to the right either have a middle
initial, a first initial, or no initial. See if you can parse these names into
four pieces: Last name, Used name, Initial, and Middle initial, where:
Used name is the name (first or middle) the person goes by.
Initial is the single initial character, if any, or is blank if there is no initial.
Middle initial is "Yes" if the initial is a middle initial, "No" if it is a first
initial, and blank if there is no initial.
Hints: (1) FIND returns an error if it can't find the requested text. (2)
Used name is the name (first or middle) the person goes by.
Initial is the single initial character, if any, or is blank if there is no initial.
Middle initial is "Yes" if the initial is a middle initial, "No" if it is a first
initial, and blank if there is no initial.
Hints: (1) FIND returns an error if it can't find the requested text. (2)
There is an ISERROR function that can check whether a cell contains an
error. Scroll to the right for a solution.
OK, this one is not easy, and it requires some careful planning and logic.
But it sure beats typing a long list of hundreds or thousands of names!
Excel 2013 introduced a new Flash Fill tool that eliminates the need for some
(but not all) of these complex parsing formulas. You can read about Flash Fill in
the Text Functions section of the tutorial.
List of Topics sheet
Flash Fill
Has Excel become a mind reader with the new Flash Fill tool introduced in
Excel 2013? You might think so after you read this topic. However, it's not
really about mind reading but rather about the ability to recognize
patterns.
Method 1. Try it! Type the first name in the top row: Bob in cell L7. Then
select Flash Fill from the Fill dropdown on the Home ribbon. Pretty
amazing, isn't it? Now you could repeat with the other columns. Note that
right after doing a flash fill, you get a mini dropdown that provides several
options, such as undoing the flash fill.
Method 2. Try it! Type the middle initial and period in the top row: E. in
cell M7. Then start typing the next initial in the second row: T. in cell M8.
Pretty soon, Excel will guess the pattern and show it for all rows in light
font, at which time you can press Enter to accept the results. Again, you
could now repeat with the other columns.
Method 3. Try it! Type the last name in the top row: Jones in cell N7. Then
with any gray cell in column N selected, use the Flash Fill shortcut key
combination, Ctrl+e. Now repeat this method for the other columns.
By the way, as you do any of these, you might see text appear in row 6,
not just in the gray range. This is because Flash Fill is also parsing the
Names to parse label in cell K6!
Note how Flash Fill can recognize many patterns, such as the initials in
column Q and even the lower case name in column R. However, if names
don't fit the pattern, Flash Fill will likely fail. For example, if the bottom
two names were replaced with Lincoln, Abe and Fitzgerald, F. Scott, Flash
Fill wouldn't get everything correct. (You might want to verify this.) As this
indicates, Flash Fill can't completely take the place of text functions for all
parsing tasks.
Flash Fill also works on certain patterns of numbers and dates, as you can
check on the examples to the right. However, except for the year column
on the dates, only methods 1 and 3 seem to work; method 2 doesn't
work. It isn't clear why method 2 works in some situations but not in
others, and youll probably have to experiment to see which method
works best for you. In any case, the Flash Fill tool can often save you from
entering a lot of complex text formulas.
entering a lot of complex text formulas.
List of Topics sheet
Names to parse
Jones, Bob E. Bob
Davis, Stephen T.
Thompson, Andy S.
Wilson, John T.
Kelley, Jennifer B.
Williams, Karen S.
Smith, Tom F.
Jennings, Peter R.
Benson, Ted A.
Samson, Jason T.
21
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
We tend to take dates and times for granted, but they appear in many, if
not most, real-world business spreadsheets. They can actually be quite
tricky to work with, and a complete treatment of dates and times could
fill a long chapter of a book. This tutorial can't cover all of the intricacies
of Excel-based dates and times, but it does illustrate some of the most
useful methods for working with them, including several of the functions
listed to the right.
The first thing to realize is that a date-time value that appears in a cell as
something like 3/14/2004 4:30 PM is really stored as a number. Excel
refers to this number as the serial value. The serial value corresponding
to this particular date-time happens to be 38060.688. The value to the
left of the decimal is the number of days since a base date (January 1,
1900), and the decimal part indicates the fraction of time through the
day, starting right after midnight. In this example 4:30 PM is 68.8% of the
way from midnight to the next midnight. If the decimal part is omitted, it
is assumed to be midnight. In this case, you usually format the value so
that only the date, not the time, appears.
If you happen to know the numbering system for dates, that is, you
somehow know that 38060 corresponds to 3/14/2004, you could enter
the number 38060 in a cell and then format it to look like a date.
However, you usually enter a date like 3/14/2004 in a cell. Actually, there
are several formats Excel recognizes as dates, including 3/14/2004,
March 14, 2004, 3-14-04, and a few others, but they are all stored as
38060.
The same is true for date-times, such as 3/14/2004 4:30 PM, or just
times, such as 4:30 PM. If you enter either of these in a format that Excel
recognizes as a date-time or just a time, Excel will recognize that these
are date-times or times, but it will store them as numbers, 68030.688 or
0.688.
Try it! The cells to the right include some date-times, dates (no times
specified), and times (no dates specified), formatted in several ways.
Format these as numbers with three decimals to see the serial values.
Then reformat them as date-times in any formats you prefer.
Date and Time functions Dates to format
3/14/04 1:30 PM
12/31/1901
3:50
12:00 PM
29-Feb-96
9/24/46 14:45
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Excel has two useful functions, TODAY and NOW, for automatically
entering the current date or the current date and time .
Enter the formula =TODAY() in any blank cell. (The blank parentheses are
necessary.) It returns the current date. If you open this spreadsheet
tomorrow, it will list tomorrows date, that is, it will update each day.
To use the NOW function:
Enter the formula =NOW() in any blank cell. (Again, the blank parentheses
are necessary.) It returns the current date and time. It is also dynamic, but
it won't change until worksheet recalculates.
Try it! Enter the TODAY and NOW functions in the gray cells. Then format
the result of NOW as time onlyno date. (Scroll to the right for answers.)
After you have worked a few other exercises in this tutorial, come back to
this topic and see whether the time has changed. (You might have to force
a recalculation to see the change. You can do this by pressing the F9 key.)
List of Topics sheet
Today's date
Current time
Today's date 10/17/2017
Current time 7:50 AM
The value
The value in
in cell
cell AF8
AF8 was
was
formatted to
formatted to show
show time
time only,
only,
not date
not dateand
and time.
time.
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Date
YEAR, MONTH, DAY, WEEKDAY Functions (Date & Time Category) 9/11/2001
1/28/1986
If a cell contains a date, it is easy to strip off the year, month, and day 11/22/1963
with the YEAR, MONTH, and DAY functions. There is also a WEEKDAY
function that returns the weekday index, 1 (Sunday) to 7 (Saturday). Each 8/6/1945
of these functions has a single argument, a date or a reference to a cell 12/7/1941
containing a date.
4/14/1912
Try it! For each date to the right in column K, return the year, month, day,
and weekday in columns L-O. (See to the right for answers.)
You might want the month name, such as September, and the day name,
such as Tuesday, rather than numbers. You can do this with custom
formatting. To get to custom formatting, right-click on any cell, select
Format Cells, and select Custom to bring up the dialog box to the right.
For month names, you can enter the code mmm (for three-letter
abbreviations) or mmmm (for full month names). Similarly, you can enter
the codes ddd or dddd for days.
The DATE function takes three numerical arguments, a year, a month, and a
day, and it returns the corresponding date. The important part is that Excel
recognizes the result as a date, which you can then format in any date
format you like.
This function can be very useful for manipulating dates. For example, it can
be used to find your next birthday, given your birthdate, as illustrated in cell
L8. The formula in cell L8 is a long one, but it is simple logic. This person's
next birthday will certainly be on July 22. The only question is whether it
will be in the current year or the next year. The IF function checks for this.
Note that YEAR(TODAY()) returns the year corresponding to today's date.
Tip: Depending on the width of your Excel window, you might not be able
to see all of the long cell L8 formula in the formula bar. To see long formulas
like this one, you can make the formula bar "taller." Just drag the border
below the formula bar down.
Try it! Enter your birthdate in cell K17 and then calculate your current age
(as an integer) in cell L17. (Scroll to the right for the answer.)
The DATEVALUE function can be a real life-saver. It takes a date stored as text
and returns the corresponding serial value, which you can then format as a
date. Why is this important? Suppose you have a lot of data stored in some
type of legacy system in your business, and you are somehow able to dump it
into Excel. The chances are that all dates will be imported as text. That is, a
cell value will look something like 5/20/2001, but Excel wont recognize it as a
date. Without the DATEVALUE function, you would have to retype all of the
dates! However, DATEVALUE saves you this mind-numbing work.
Try it! Create dates in column L corresponding to the text values in column K
that happen to look like dates. Then format the results with any date format
you prefer. (Scroll to the right for answers.)
Enter the formula =DATEVALUE(datetext), where datetext refers to a date
stored as text. Then format the result as a date.
Try it! Create dates in column L corresponding to the text values in column K
that happen to look like dates. Then format the results with any date format
you prefer. (Scroll to the right for answers.)
List of Topics sheet
Birthdate Age
The values
The valuesin
ingray
graycould
couldnow
now
be formatted
be formatted as
asdates.
dates.
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
The MIN function returns the smallest numeric value in a range. Similarly,
the MAX function returns the largest numeric value in a range.
Sales rep
To use MIN and MAX functions:
Jan sales
Enter the formula =MIN(range) or =MAX(range) where range is any range. Feb sales
These produce the obvious results: the maximum (or minimum) value in
the range.
Try it! Use the MIN and MAX functions to fill in the gray range to the right.
(Scroll to the right for answers.) Jan
Note that MIN and MAX work only on numeric data. If you have a list of Feb
names, you might expect MIN and MAX to return the first and last names
in alphabetical order, but unfortunately they don't. (There are two other
functions called MINA and MAXA, but they don't appear to be very useful.)
Allison Baker Jones Miller Smith Taylor
$3,700 $2,400 $2,300 $3,000 $3,800 $3,700
$2,600 $2,200 $2,400 $2,800 $3,600 $2,300
The median is the middle value in a set of n numbers, in the sense that half are
above it and half are below it. More precisely, when the values are sorted in
increasing order, it is the middle value if n is odd, and it is the average of the
two middle values if n is even. Fortunately, Excel takes care of the details with
the MEDIAN function. 33
3
To use the MEDIAN function: 0
Enter the formula =MEDIAN(range), where range is any numeric range. 1
4
Note that if range contains labels or blank cells, these are ignored when 14
calculating the median. This is also true for the other statistical functions.
5
Try it! Find the median of the data in column K. Does it equal the average? 41
Why or why not? (Scroll to the right for answers.) 3
5
9
1
0
22
10
QUARTILE Function (Statistical Category) 5
13
The values in a data set are often ranked in some way. For example, if you 7
take the SAT exam to get into college, you learn your ranking by a percentile.
If you are at the 85th percentile, you know that 85% of all people scored 6
lower than you, and only 15% scored higher. Excel has two useful functions 3
for finding this type of information: PERCENTILE and QUARTILE.
9
The QUARTILE function is the easiest to understand. Imagine that you have 5
1000 scores. You sort them from low to high and then divide them into four 14
sets of 250 scores each, where the first set contains the smallest scores, the
second set contains the next smallest scores, and so on. The first, second, 7
and third quartiles are the breakpoints between these sets. For example, 27
25% of the scores are below the first quartile, and 75% are above it. By 10
definition, the second quartile is the median.
7
To use the QUARTILE function: 3
11
Enter the formula =QUARTILE(range,k), where k is 1, 2, or 3. For example, if
you enter 3 for k, you get the third quartile. 15
35
Try it! Find all three quartiles, Q1, Q2, and Q3, for the data in column K.
9
0
5
6
11
13
4
17
3
PERCENTILE Function (Statistical Category) 19
The PERCENTILE function takes any percentage, expressed as a decimal 4
number from 0 to 1, and it returns the value such that the given percentage of 5
all values is below this value. For example, if the percentage is 10% (0.10) and 1
the PERCENTILE function returns 45, you know that 10% of all values in the
data set are below 45 and 90% are above it. 21
4
To use the PERCENTILE function: 16
Enter the formula =PERCENTILE(range,pct), where pct is any percentage 6
expressed as a decimal between 0 and 1, such as 0.10 for 10%. 18
18
Try it! Find the requested percentiles for the data in column K. For example,
P10 indicates the 10th percentile. Do you see the relationship between the 2
quartiles and certain percentiles? 3
17
7
9
6
4
2
Technical Note About QUARTILE and PERCENTILE Functions 7
The QUARTILE and PERCENTILE functions are typically used on data sets with a 3
large number of values. If they are used on a very small data set, you might be 0
surprised at the results. In fact, you might even disagree with them. For 14
example, if the data set has the five values 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50, Excels
PERCENTILE function indicates that the 10 th percentile is 14. This is certainly not 2
a very intuitive answer, and you might disagree with it, but why anyone would 4
want the 10th percentile of a five-value data set in the first place? 24
In any case, Microsoft introduced the functions QUARTILE.INC, QUARTILE.EXC, 12
PERCENTILE.INC, and PERCENTILE.EXC in Excel 2010. The INC versions are 1
identical to the original QUARTILE and PERCENTILE function (which still work
fine). The EXC versions were evidently added to work better on small data sets. 4
You can go to online help for further details. 36
3
0
2
4
12
7
2
1
16
5
31
15
29
12
5
4
5
22
14
7
7
19
38
15
45
1
4
14
3
16
4
Average
Median
Quartiles
Q1
Q2
Q3
Percentiles
P01
P05
P10
P25
P50
P75
P90
P95
P99
Average 10.27
Median 7
Quartiles
Q1 3.75
Q2 7
Q3 14.25
Percentiles
P01 0
P05 0.95
P10 1
P25 3.75
P50 7
P75 14.25
P90 22.2
P95 33.1
P99 41.04
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
% within 1 stdev
Mean 999.77
Variance 83102.38
St Dev 288.27
If there are two columns of data that are matched in a particular way,
such as monthly sales of two company products, it is often useful to see
how they are related. If one is unusually large, does the other tend to be Month
unusually large or does it tend to be unusually small? The statistical Jan-09
measure for this is correlation, and it can be calculated with the CORREL Feb-09
function. A correlation is a number between -1 and +1. If the correlation
is positive, the two sets of numbers tend to vary in the same direction. If Mar-09
one is small, the other tends to be small; if one is large, the other tends Apr-09
to be large. Exactly the opposite is true if the correlation is negative. In
this case, the two sets of numbers tend to vary in opposite directions. May-09
The magnitude of the correlation indicates the strength of the Jun-09
relationship between the two sets of numbers. There is a strong Jul-09
relationship (positve or negative) if the correlation is close to -1 or +1.
The relationship is much weaker, or nonexistent, if the correlation is Aug-09
close to 0. Sep-09
Oct-09
To calculate a correlation between two sets of numbers:
Nov-09
Enter the formula =CORREL(range1,range2), where range1 and range2 Dec-09
contain the two matched sets of numbers. Jan-10
Try it! The data to the right represent monthly sales of three products. Feb-10
Calculate the indicated correlations in column Q. (Scroll to the right for Mar-10
the answers.)
Apr-10
There is a similar function COVAR for calculating covariances. A May-10
covariance is a correlation multiplied by the product of the two variables' Jun-10
standard deviations. Because a covarance is affected strongly by the units
in which the variables are measured, such as dollars versus thousands of Jul-10
dollars, it is not as easy to interpret as a correlation. Aug-10
Sep-10
Note: Two new functions, COVARIANCE.S and COVARIANCE.P, were
added in Excel 2010. COVARIANCE.P (P for population) is identical to the Oct-10
old COVAR function, which still works fine. Its denominator is n, the Nov-10
sample size. In contrast, COVARIANCE.S (S for sample) uses denominator Dec-10
n-1. However, no new CORREL function was required.
Jan-11
Feb-11
Mar-11
Apr-11
May-11
Jun-11
Jul-11
Aug-11
Sep-11
Oct-11
Nov-11
Dec-11
Jan-12
Feb-12
Mar-12
Apr-12
May-12
Jun-12
Jul-12
Aug-12
Sep-12
Oct-12
Nov-12
Dec-12
Jan-13
Feb-13
Mar-13
Apr-13
May-13
Jun-13
Jul-13
Aug-13
Sep-13
Oct-13
Nov-13
Dec-13
Jan-14
Feb-14
Mar-14
Apr-14
May-14
Jun-14
Jul-14
Aug-14
Sep-14
Oct-14
Nov-14
Dec-14
Jan-15
Feb-15
Mar-15
Apr-15
May-15
Jun-15
Jul-15
Sales1 Sales2 Sales3 Correlations
800 1750 640 Sales1 vs Sales2
1360 2970 280 Sales1 vs Sales3
1150 2370 230 Sales2 vs Sales3
940 2010 410
740 1690 290
1090 2590 460
780 1640 760
910 2100 840
990 1620 760
800 1790 710
1200 2320 690
1150 2090 640
880 2170 530
870 1640 640
870 1980 560
760 1360 980
1010 2110 880
820 1740 570
1140 2040 650
730 1940 600
1150 2000 540
690 890 1130
1210 2480 600
1080 2050 660
1420 2840 330
1230 2490 710
1170 2330 610
1140 2540 840
560 1750 1010
910 2490 950
1260 2930 150
1050 2500 390
1020 2240 440
760 1630 420
710 1380 880
1000 2000 660
940 2200 630
1270 2510 510
1370 2610 560
1050 2180 620
1110 2590 470
1170 2160 580
990 2020 480
1040 1870 300
1350 2590 540
820 1440 520
860 1870 620
1190 2640 460
910 1980 590
950 2290 510
820 1850 550
770 1710 610
810 1480 720
1370 2820 770
940 2360 540
1020 1940 420
930 1900 800
1110 2520 660
1230 2320 610
1080 2240 990
890 1840 530
970 1940 520
920 2510 480
1000 2360 370
1250 2400 380
1280 2490 640
790 1760 450
940 2000 290
1140 2570 460
1020 2760 370
1060 1680 560
1130 2000 60
1050 2270 710
1380 2350 660
770 1410 800
860 2410 360
1130 1980 700
1350 2960 300
920 2320 380
Correlations
Sales1 vs Sales2 0.776112
Sales1 vs Sales3 -0.31274
Sales2 vs Sales3 -0.41242
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Note: This item should be of particular to users who have used, or plan
to use, Excel's many statistical functions such as NORMDIST.
Similar functions, with .DIST and .INV versions, now exist for other
probability distributions such as binomial, chi-square, and others. In fact,
for the t distribution, commonly used in statistical inference, there are six
versions. Their functionality was available in the older TDIST and TINV
functions, but only through obscure combinations of arguments. Now
their names indicate more precisely their purpose. (Only five of the six
are shown to the right. The other one is T.TEST, which you can look up in
online help.)
Again, the majority of the new (or newly named) functions are statistical
functions, but there are a few others. For example, in the Date & Time
group, there are NETWORKDAYS (old) and NETWORKDAYS.INTL (new)
functions. The best way to get acquainted with these new functions is to
go to the Formulas tab and click one of the dropdowns lists in the
Function Library group. From there, you can get as much help as you
need. By the way, help for the old functions such as NORMDIST is still
available. You can find it in the Compatibility group under More
Functions on the Formulas ribbon.
List of Topics sheet
the left of it
the right of it
the left of it
tween it and the negative of it (i.e., combined 0.95 in the tails)
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
The PMT function is usually used to find the monthly payment for a car
loan or a home mortgage loan. The inputs are typically an annual interest
rate, a term (number of months financed), and the amount borrowed
(the principal). The PMT function finds the amount you have to pay each
month of the term. Part of this payment is principal and part is interest.
At the end of the term, you will have paid just enough to pay off the
entire loan.
Try it! Suppose you take out a $30,000 loan for a new car when the
annual interest rate is 3.75% and the term of the loan is 36 months.
Calculate your monthly payment in the gray cell. Then use a data table to
see how your monthly payment varies for terms of 24, 36, 48, or 60
months. (Scroll to the right for the answers. The Data Table topic in this
tutorial explains data tables.)
List of Topics sheet
Much of the theory of finance is about the time value of money. Basically,
a dollar earned in the future is less valuable than a dollar earned today
because the dollar earned today can earn interest. To account for this,
future cash inflows or outflows are discounted to get their present values
now. Given a future stream of cash inflows and/or outflows, the sum of all
their present values is called the net present value, or NPV. If this stream is
incurred at regular time intervalsat the end of each year from year 1 on
you can use Excels handy NPV function to calculate the NPV of the
stream.
Try it! Assume a company pays $100,000 at the beginning of year 1 to get
into an investment. It then receives the cash inflows at the ends of years 1
through 5 shown to the right. What is the NPV of this investment (inflows
minus outflows) with a 12% discount rate? Does the NPV increase or
decrease as the discount rate increases? (Scroll to the right for the
answer.)
Typically, the first cash value will be an outflow and the rest will be
inflows. In this case, the initial outflow (investment) should be included in
the XNPV function, and the NPV will be discounted back to the date of this
initial payment. This payment should be entered as a negative number.
Enter the formula =XNPV(discount_rate,cash_flows,dates), where
discount_rate is the same as with NPV, cash_flows is a stream of cash
inflows or outflows, and dates is a stream of the dates when they are
incurred.
Typically, the first cash value will be an outflow and the rest will be
inflows. In this case, the initial outflow (investment) should be included in
the XNPV function, and the NPV will be discounted back to the date of this
initial payment. This payment should be entered as a negative number.
Try it! Find the net present value of the stream of cash inflows shown to
the right, where the first is really a payment at the beginning of 2013.
(Scroll to the right for the answer.)
List of Topics sheet
NPV
NPV
NPV $29,806
NPV $69,805
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Companies often have investment opportunities where they pay initially Cash flows (initial value is a
and then receive returns in the future. It is easy to show that the NPV of
such an investment decreases as the discount rate increases. In fact, for $100,000
large enough discount rates, the NPV will typically become negative,
meaning that the future returns are not enough to offset the initial IRR
payment. The discount rate at which NPV changes from positive to
negative is called the internal rate of return, or IRR. Specifically, the IRR is
the discount rate at which NPV equals 0.
Companies are interested in IRR for the following reason. Typically, they
have a "hurdle rate" that they use to discount potential investments. If
the NPV of an investment is positive, discounted at the hurdle rate, it is
worth pursuing. If it is negative, it is not attractive. Stated equivalently,
the investment is worth pursuing only if its IRR is greater than the
companys hurdle rate.
Excel has an IRR function that calculates an investments IRR. As with the
NPV function, the investment should be structured so that there is an
initial cash payment at the beginning of year 1 and then regular cash
returns at the ends of years 1, 2, and so on.
Try it! Find the IRR for the investment to the right, using an initial guess of
15%. What does this IRR say about the attractiveness of the investment?
(Scroll to the right for the answer.)
Note: The NPV topic in this tutorial describes an XNPV function for cash
flows that don't occur at regularly spaced intervals. There is a
corresponding XIRR function. You can look it up in online help.
sh flows (initial value is a payment)
$35,000 $45,000 $40,000 $25,000 $10,000
IRR
The company
The companywillwill find
findthis
this in
i
attractive only
attractive only ifif its
its hurdle
hurdlerr
below 19.81%
below 19.81% (which
(whichititprobpro
19.81%
The company
The companywillwill find
findthis
this investment
investment
attractive only
attractive only ifif its
its hurdle
hurdlerate
rate isis
below 19.81%
below 19.81% (which
(whichititprobably
probably is). is).
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
The INDEX function is useful for finding the value in a particular cell of a
rectangular range. You access this value by the indexes of the cell you
want. Specifically, you specify a row index and a column index. For
example, if the range has 10 rows and 20 columns, the indexes 4, 8
indicate the 4th row and 8th column of the range.
Try it! Find the unit shipping cost from Plant2 to City3 with a formula in
the top gray cell. Then enter a formula in the bottom gray cell that finds
the unit shipping cost from the plant to the city specified in the two cells
above it. This formula should respond appropriately to whatever plant
and city indexes are entered in these two cells. (Scroll to the right for the
answers.)
List of Topics sheet
Plant 1
City 2
Unit shipping cost
Unit shipping from Plant2 to City3 1.25
The MATCH function is handy for finding a cell in a range that matches a
given value. It is often used in the following situation. Suppose you have
a decision variable such as order quantity that needs to be chosen to
maximize profit. You enter some formulas that link order quantity to
profit. Then you create a data table that finds the profit for a number of
possible order quantities. The MATCH function lets you locate the order
quantity in the data table with the largest profit.
Try it! The table to the right shows the profit for each order quantity
(along the side) and each unit stockout cost (along the top). Enter
copyable formulas in the gray range to find the best order quantity for
each unit stockout cost. (Scroll to the right for the answers.)
List of Topics sheet
Profit for various order quantities (column L) and unit stockout costs (row 32)
$2 $3 $4 $5
200 $5,235 $5,175 $5,025 $4,935
250 $5,465 $5,285 $5,190 $5,085
300 $5,355 $5,325 $5,265 $5,100
350 $5,215 $5,195 $5,130 $5,125
400 $5,145 $5,085 $5,015 $5,005
The OFFSET function allows you to reference a range (or a single cell)
relative to another cell. It is hard to appreciate this function unless you
see some examples, so some typical examples are illustrated here.
Without the OFFSET function, you could simply put links in the Receipts
row that point to sales two months earlier. For example, the formula for
receipts in January would be =M33. But what if the retailer decides to
delay payments by three months instead of two? Then you would need
to fix the links in the Receipts row. However, the OFFSET function avoids
this updating of links. You can use the formula =OFFSET(O33,0,-$L$30) in
cell O34 for January and copy it across row 34 for the other months. This
formula says to start in the January sales cell and go a certain number of
cells to the left (because of the minus sign), where this number is
specified in cell L30. To see how it works, change the value in cell L30 to
3 or 1. (If the delay is 3, you will need to copy the formula ahead to
September; if the delay is 1, you can delete the August formula.)
Try it! Suppose that a manufacturing company buys raw materials from a
supplier. If the cost in any month is $x, the company pays 40% of this cost
one month from now and the other 60% two months from now. Use the
OFFSET function to calculate the payments made in January through
August, based on the costs through July. These calculated payments
formula says to start in the January sales cell and go a certain number of
cells to the left (because of the minus sign), where this number is
specified in cell L30. To see how it works, change the value in cell L30 to
3 or 1. (If the delay is 3, you will need to copy the formula ahead to
September; if the delay is 1, you can delete the August formula.)
Try it! Suppose that a manufacturing company buys raw materials from a
supplier. If the cost in any month is $x, the company pays 40% of this cost
one month from now and the other 60% two months from now. Use the
OFFSET function to calculate the payments made in January through
August, based on the costs through July. These calculated payments
should update automatically if you change the inputs in the blue cells.
For example, make sure your formulas react correctly if you enter 2 and 3
in the blue cells in column N. (Scroll to the right for answers.)
=OFFSET($L$61,0,0,COUNTA($L:$L)-COUNTA($L$1:$L$60),1).
Then click OK. Finally, enter the formula =SUM(Sales) in the gray cell.
Note that COUNTA($L:$L) returns the number of nonblank cells in
column L, and COUNTA($L$1:$L$60) returns the number of nonblank
cells in the first 60 rows of column L. So the difference is the number of
sales values in column L. Therefore, this OFFSET function refers to a
range that starts in cell L61 and has as many rows as there are sales
values in column L. To see how it adjusts, enter a sales value for June in
cell L66 and watch how the total changes automatically.
Try it! Create the dynamic range name just described. Then enter the
formula for the total in the gray range, and add a new sales value for
June to see if your formula updates as it should.
Try it! Create the dynamic range name just described. Then enter the
formula for the total in the gray range, and add a new sales value for
June to see if your formula updates as it should.
List of Topics sheet
Month Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Sales 3200 4600 5500 2500 3300 4200 2900 4500 2750
Receipts 4600 5500 2500 3300 4200 2900
Month Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun
Cost $1,950 $2,900 $4,150 $2,500 $3,350 $2,850 $3,550 $1,850 $4,200
Payment
Month Sales Total
Jan-11 $2,450
Feb-11 $3,140
Mar-11 $3,250
Apr-11 $4,510
May-11 $3,680
4500 2750
Answer: Open
Answer: Open thth
definition of
definition of the
the
Smith Jones Wilson Donalds
Jan-05 $6,700 $7,400 $5,800 $9,000
Feb-05 $5,800 $8,900 $5,500 $7,900
Mar-05 $5,000 $7,900 $5,900 $8,300
Apr-05 $6,700 $5,800 $6,000 $9,700
May-05 $9,400 $7,800 $6,700 $8,400
Jun-05 $6,200 $5,800 $9,400 $8,500
Jul-05 $8,700 $5,300 $6,900 $7,500
Answer: Open
Answer: Open the
thename
namemanager
manager and
and look
look at
atthe
the
definition of
definition of the
the SalesDynamic1
SalesDynamic1 range
range name.
name.
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
The INDIRECT function is useful when you have named ranges and want to
refer to these, via labels, in your formulas. For example, suppose you have
ranges named Sales1, Sales2, and Sales3. Each of these is a long column of
data. Then suppose you have labels Sales1, Sales2, and Sales3 in some other
cells, say, G1, G2, and G3. If you enter the formulas
=AVERAGE(INDIRECT(G1)), =AVERAGE(INDIRECT(G2)), and
=AVERAGE(INDIRECT(G3)) in cells H1, H2, and H3, this is the same as
entering the formulas =AVERAGE(Sales1), =AVERAGE(Sales2), and
=AVERAGE(Sales3). The name of the function implies that you are indirectly
referencing a range via a label with this range name.
Try it! Name the data ranges in columns L-O by their labels in row 4. Then
use the AVERAGE, STDEV, and CORREL functions, along with the INDIRECT
function, to enter copyable formulas in the gray ranges below. As you should
appreciate, this is particularly useful for the matrix of correlations. (See to
the right for the answers.)
of Topics sheet
Monthly sales
Month Product1 Product2 Product3 Product4
Jan-13 1043 1047 957 1031
Feb-13 993 832 883 796
Mar-13 968 1114 1206 1048
Apr-13 1461 1487 1495 1519
May-13 1137 1183 1035 1045
Jun-13 1103 999 931 1133
Jul-13 1140 1025 1124 982
Aug-13 772 927 797 922
Sep-13 1195 1297 1231 1230
Oct-13 1140 1358 1267 1253
Nov-13 1236 1120 1107 1275
Dec-13 696 573 513 687
Jan-14 749 581 481 711
Feb-14 984 1005 998 804
Mar-14 1114 933 1084 963
Apr-14 758 832 950 745
May-14 307 418 428 508
Jun-14 1055 807 865 1102
Jul-14 1108 1149 1240 1275
Aug-14 1286 1041 919 968
Correlations
Product1 Product2 Product3 Product4
Product1
Product2
Product3
Product4
Averages, standard deviations
Average Stdev
Product1 #REF! #REF!
Product2 #REF! #REF!
Product3 #REF! #REF!
Product4 #REF! #REF!
Correlations
Product1 Product2 Product3 Product4
Product1 #REF! #REF! #REF! #REF!
Product2 #REF! #REF! #REF! #REF!
Product3 #REF! #REF! #REF! #REF!
Product4 #REF! #REF! #REF! #REF!
Total sales
Smith
Jan-05 $6,700
Feb-05 $5,800
Mar-05 $5,000
Apr-05 $6,700
May-05 $9,400
Jun-05 $6,200
Jul-05 $8,700
Jones Wilson Donalds
$7,400 $5,800 $9,000 Answer: Open
Answer: Openthe
thename
name manager
manager and
andlook
lookat
at
the definition
the definitionof
of the
the Sales1
Sales1 range
range name.
name.
$8,900 $5,500 $7,900
$7,900 $5,900 $8,300
$5,800 $6,000 $9,700
$7,800 $6,700 $8,400
$5,800 $9,400 $8,500
$5,300 $6,900 $7,500
anager and
anager andlook
lookat
at
1 range
range name.
name.
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Date
Quick Analysis 6-Mar
6-Mar
The Quick Analysis tool, introduced in Excel 2013, is a feature that 6-Mar
received considerable publicity. Starting with a data set such as the one
to the right, the new Quick Analysis tools provide you with instant 6-Mar
conditional formatting, pivot tables, charts, and other results with almost 6-Mar
no work. You can decide how useful this new feature really is. It 6-Mar
undoubtedly gives you very quick results, but it might not give you the
results you want. 7-Mar
7-Mar
To see how this works, select the entire data range to the right, including
the labels in row 3. You will see a Quick Analysis icon at the bottom right 7-Mar
of the data range. (Remember that if you are using a pre-2013 version of 8-Mar
Excel, this won't work.) When you click this icon (or press Ctrl+Q), you 8-Mar
see the Quick Analysis options below and to the right. Then you can
explore the possibilities. They are all straightforward. 8-Mar
9-Mar
As an example, if you choose Tables and then choose the first of several 9-Mar
automatic pivot tables, you get the pivot table on the next sheet, which
breaks down the sum of Total Cost by Region. This might or might not be 10-Mar
the pivot table you really want, but at least it gives you a pivot table that 10-Mar
you can then modify as you like. Similar statements can be made about 10-Mar
the automatic charts available from the Charts item. You can decide
whether this is any easier than building the pivot table or the chart you 10-Mar
really want from scratch. 11-Mar
Starting in Excel 2013, two of these Quick Analysis options are duplicated 11-Mar
by two "let us guess what you want" items in the Insert ribbon, shown to
the right. These are the Recommended PivotTables and Recommended Quick Analysis options
Charts items. They provide exactly the same options for pivot tables and
charts as from the Quick Analysis tools.
Person
Some Background on Tables 1
2
Note: Several of the screenshots on this worksheet are to the right of the
data, so scroll across to see them. 3
4
It is very common to work with "data sets" in Excel, where a data set is
typically a rectangular range with "observations" in the rows, "variables" in 5
the columns, and variable names in the top row. (Observations are also 6
called cases or records, and variables are also called fields or attributes.) A 7
typical data set appears to the right. Each row is an observation on some
person, and each column lists an attribute about the person. 8
9
Excel users have worked with data sets for years, and for a long time, they 10
were known somewhat informally as lists. But in Excel 2007, they gained
much more prominence and became known as tables. This was a much 11
needed change. You can perform many useful tasks with tables that you 12
either couldn't perform before or could perform only with extra work. Now 13
these tasks are easy.
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Designating a Data Set as a Table 21
22
It is not enough to have a rectangular range of data to apply the table 23
tools. You must designate the range as a table. There are three ways to
do this, and all are easy. For each, make sure any cell in the table is 24
selected. Then (see screenshots to the right): 25
26
1. Click the Table button near the left of the Insert ribbon, or
27
2. Click the Format as Table dropdown arrow on the Home ribbon and 28
choose any of the color styles.
29
3. Press Ctrl+t. 30
31
Excel guesses that the range "surrounding" the active cell is the table
range in the Create Table dialog box (see screenshot to the right), but 32
you can override this if necessary. 33
34
Try it! Designate the data set to the right as a table. You will see that the
formatting changes, and you will see two other important changes (see 35
blue screenshot to the right). First, there is a dropdown arrow next to 36
each variable name. These are used for sorting and filtering, as discussed 37
below. Second, if the cursor is inside the table, there is a new Table Tools
Design tab and corresponding ribbon. It contains the tools for 38
manipulating the table. 39
If you no longer want the range to be designated as a table, you can click 40
Convert to Range on the Table Tools Design ribbon. The dropdown 41
arrows will disappear. Only the cell formatting will remain, and you can 42
restore it to "plain" if you like. Try this on the table you just created.
manipulating the table.
If you no longer want the range to be designated as a table, you can click
Convert to Range on the Table Tools Design ribbon. The dropdown
arrows will disappear. Only the cell formatting will remain, and you can
restore it to "plain" if you like. Try this on the table you just created.
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
Filtering in Tables 52
53
One of the main uses of tables is filtering, that is, hiding (but not 54
deleting) rows that don't match various conditions. Filtering is done
through the dropdown arrows next to the column headings. This tutorial 55
won't explain all of the options because there are so many, but with a
little bit of experimenting, you should be able to master them in no time.
Just remember that they build upon one another. For example, if you
filter on Gender so that only males are showing, and you then filter on
Children so that only people with at least two children are showing, you
will see only males with at least two children.
Filtering on a numeric vari
The screenshots to the right shows filter dialog box for a numeric
variable, Salary. It shows all distinct values of Salary, which you could
check or uncheck, but more importantly, the Number Filters group
contains many useful possibilities, such as Greater Than. Similarly, if you
filter on a text variable such as State or a Date variable such as Birthdate,
there are many Text Filters and Date Filters you can choose from.
Try it! If you haven't already done so, designate the data set to the right
as a table, and then experiment with the filters.
To clear a filter, click the column's dropdown arrow and select Clear
Filter. To clear all filters, click the Clear button in the Sort & Filter group
on the Home ribbon. You can also do it from the Data ribbon. (See to the
right.)
Sorting in Tables
You probably noticed that when you click a column dropdown arrow, there are
sorting options. This provides one more way to sort in Excel. It is not clear that
sorting in tables provides any advantages over sorting in regular (non-table)
data sets, but it is certainly possible and easy.
One important advantage of a table is that you can summarize filtered data
easily. To do so, check the Total Row box on the Table Tools Design ribbon.
This generates a "total" row below the table. By default, it shows the sum of
Summarizing with the Total Row Total Row button on Table
One important advantage of a table is that you can summarize filtered data
easily. To do so, check the Total Row box on the Table Tools Design ribbon.
This generates a "total" row below the table. By default, it shows the sum of
the values in the rightmost column, as shown to the right. But it gives you
many more options. If you select any cell in the total row, you will see a
dropdown list of summarizing options for that column (count, sum, average,
and others). And if you then filter the data, the summary measures will be
only for the filtered data. (This couldn't be done, at least not easily, before
Excel 2007.) Example of Total Row
Try it! Create a total row for the table of people, and show summary
measures that seem appropriate. Then filter in some way and watch how
the summary measures change.
Filtering on a numeric variable Clear all filters on Home ribbon Clear all filters button on Data ribbon
Total Row button on Table Tools Design ribbon
s Table options
on on Data ribbon
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Pivot tables are a manager's dream. They allow you to "slice and dice" data in all sorts
of ways. Essentially, you use pivot tables to break down variables like revenue or
items sold by categories, such as region, month, and store.
Pivot tables have been in Excel since the late 1990s, and each new version has
changed them slightly. Then Excel 2007 made significant changes to the user interface
for pivot tables. Minor changes have then been made in Excel 2010 and 2013.
Regardless of the version, an argument can be made that no tool in any software
package enables you to get as much information as quickly and easily as Excel's pivot
tables.
The only thing that makes pivot tables difficult for some users is that there are so
many options. Whole books have been written about pivot tables. However, rather
than read such books, you can learn the essentials discussed here and then
experiment. Don't worry about making mistakes. Pivot tables are very forgiving, and if
nothing else, you can always start over.
The data set starting in column AA is typical. Each row is a sale to some customer.
The last two variables, Items Ordered and Total Cost, are numeric, so they are
candidates for breaking down by the categorical variables to their left.
To create a pivot table, select any cell in the data set and click the Pivot Table
button on the Insert ribbon. Excel guesses the data range, which you can override
if necessary, and it asks where you want the pivot table to be placed. (Throughout
this topic, refer to the screenshots to the right.)
Try it! Create a pivot table from this data set, and place it on a new worksheet. You
can then use this pivot table to try all of the modifications discussed below. (Note
that there are no pivot tables on this Topic sheet. It contains only screen captures
of pivot tables; they are not "live.")
You will see a blank pivot table as shown to the right, and if the active cell is inside
it, you will see a PivotTable Fields pane and two PivotTable Tools tabs, Analyze and
Design. (The Analyze ribbon was called Options before Excel 2013.) Just remember
that the Fields pane and the pivot table tabs are visible only when the pivot table
is selected. So if they disappear, you now know why.
The key is the PivotTable Fields pane. The top section shows all of the available
fields (columns), and the bottom section shows the four areas you can drag these
to. Rather than read through a long explanation, try the following:
Drag Gender to the Rows area, Region to the Columns area, Paid With to the
Filters area, and Total Cost to the Values area. You have just broken down Total
Cost by Gender, Region, and Paid With. Each number in the pivot table is the sum
of Total Cost for its category values. (See the typical pivot table screenshot below
and to the right.)
to. Rather than read through a long explanation, try the following:
Drag Gender to the Rows area, Region to the Columns area, Paid With to the
Filters area, and Total Cost to the Values area. You have just broken down Total
Cost by Gender, Region, and Paid With. Each number in the pivot table is the sum
of Total Cost for its category values. (See the typical pivot table screenshot below
and to the right.)
Here are some other things you can do to the pivot table you just built. Try each of
these, hands-on. (Screenshots are not shown for all of these, but if you follow the
directions, you shouldn't have any problems with these modifications.)
1. The default layout for a pivot table (starting in Excel 2007) is called Compact
layout. You might prefer Tabular layout (the only layout in pre-2007 versions)
because it shows the names of the fields in the row and column areas. Both
layouts are shown in the screenshots to the right. You can change the layout
through the Report Layout dropdown on the PivotTable Tools Design ribbon.
2. By default, the sums are for all categories of any variables in the Filters area. To
show sums for VISA sales only, say, click the dropdown arrow next to Paid With
and select VISA.
3. You can hide any row or column categories. For example, click the Column
Labels dropdown list and select only Midwest and West.
4. You can change the way Total Cost is summarized and the way its values are
formatted. To do so, right-click any number in the pivot table and select a
summarizing function from the Summarize Values By dropdown list. For example,
select Average. Then right-click again and select Number Format and choose a
number format in the usual way. Now you see the average of Total Cost for the
various categories. (As an alternative, you can right-click and select Value Field
Settings. This opens a dialog box where you can make several changes at once.)
5. In the bottom section of the Fields pane, drag Gender to the Columns area and
Region to the Rows area. This is called pivoting. In fact, this is why they are called
pivot tables!
6. In the bottom section of the Fields pane, drag any of the fields to a blank space
on the worksheet, or simply uncheck its box in the top section. This removes the
field from the pivot table. There is no requirement that each of the four areas
must contain a field.
7. You can have two or more fields in a given area. For example, drag both Region
and Time to the Rows area. It starts to get "busy," but you are certainly allowed to
do it. Let's say you drag Gender to the Rows area and then you drag Time to the
Rows area. As you will see, the Gender button will be above the Time button in the
bottom section of the Fields pane, and Gender will be the "outer" field in the pivot
table. If you would rather reverse their roles, you can drag the Time button above
the Gender button in the bottom section of the Fields pane.
8. You can sort the values in the Rows or Columns areas through the dropdown
arrows, but the sort order might not be the natural order. For example, drag Time
to the Rows area (and drag any other variables off). The natural order is Morning,
Afternoon, Evening, but this isn't what you get with a sort. To sort appropriately,
select the Morning cell, and place your cursor at the bottom of the cell so that it
becomes a four-way arrow, and drag it up above Afternoon.
9. You can remove the grand totals from the rows and/or the columns. To do so,
the Gender button in the bottom section of the Fields pane.
8. You can sort the values in the Rows or Columns areas through the dropdown
arrows, but the sort order might not be the natural order. For example, drag Time
to the Rows area (and drag any other variables off). The natural order is Morning,
Afternoon, Evening, but this isn't what you get with a sort. To sort appropriately,
select the Morning cell, and place your cursor at the bottom of the cell so that it
becomes a four-way arrow, and drag it up above Afternoon.
9. You can remove the grand totals from the rows and/or the columns. To do so,
right-click any number in the pivot table and select PivotTable Options. This leads
to a dialog box with many pivot table options, including the option to show or hide
grand totals.
Pivot Charts
A pivot table begs for a corresponding chart. Fortunately, it is very easy to get such a
chart, called a pivot chart. Just select the pivot table, click the PivotChart button on the
PivotTable Tools Analyze (or Options) ribbon, and select a chart type. You not only get a
very nice-looking Excel chart, but it updates automatically as you make changes to the
pivot table. The pivot table and the pivot chart are perfectly synchronized.
Try it! Make some changes to the pivot table to see what happens to the chart. This is
almost too good to be true!
You can also summarize by counts. Then it doesn't matter which field is in the
Values area.
Try it! Start over by dragging everything off the pivot table. Now drag Gender to
the row area, Region to the column area, and any variable to the Values area.
If you drag a text variable to the Values area, you get counts by default. But if you
drag a numeric variable to the Values area, you will have to right-click in the pivot
table and select Count from the Summarize Values By list. (It's also a good idea to
change the title right above the pivot table to Count, rather than Count of Total
Cost, for example. The reason is that Total Cost, or whichever variable is in the
Values area, has nothing to do with the counts, so the default label is misleading.)
Each count shows the number of customers in the category. For example, you
Try it! Start over by dragging everything off the pivot table. Now drag Gender to
the row area, Region to the column area, and any variable to the Values area.
If you drag a text variable to the Values area, you get counts by default. But if you
drag a numeric variable to the Values area, you will have to right-click in the pivot
table and select Count from the Summarize Values By list. (It's also a good idea to
change the title right above the pivot table to Count, rather than Count of Total
Cost, for example. The reason is that Total Cost, or whichever variable is in the
Values area, has nothing to do with the counts, so the default label is misleading.)
Each count shows the number of customers in the category. For example, you
should see that there are 43 females from the Midwest. (Examples appear in the
screenshots to the right).
You can experiment with the other Show Values As options. It all depends on how
you want to "tell the story."
Grouping
Another useful feature is grouping. When you drag a field to the Rows area, for
example, you get a row for each distinct value of the field. If there are many distinct
values, the pivot table becomes unwieldy and probably not very informative. In this
case, it is a good idea to group on the field.
Try it! Start over by dragging all of the fields off the pivot table. Then drag Date to
the Rows area and Total Cost to the Values area.
Note that there is already some summarizing at this point because multiple sales
were made on some of the dates, but there are so many dates that it is difficult to
see any interesting trends through time. So it is useful to group on dates.
Try it! Right-click any date, select Group, and then select Month. Now you see total
sales in each of the four months.
If this data set were over a multi-year period and you grouped by Month, you would
see all of the Januaries lumped together, and similarly for the other months. To see
them broken down by year, the trick is to select Month and Year in the Group dialog
box.
Try it! Designate the data set starting in column AA as a table. It will have a default
table name, such as Table1, which you can change if you like. Then build a pivot table
from the table. You will notice that the Table/Range box shown to the right contains
the name of the table, not a range address. This is what you want. Once you have
created the pivot table, go back and add a new column to the right of the table
and/or add some extra data to the bottom of the table. Go back to the pivot table and
click the Refresh button on the PivotTable Tools Analyze (or Options) ribbon. The pivot
table will automatically be populated with the new data. This is a feature business
managers will love!
Excel 2010 introduced a new feature for pivot tables called a slicer. See the Slicer topic in
this tutorial for more information about this feature. Then add one or more slicers to
your pivot table.
Note: Starting in Excel 2016, there is a multi-select button at the top of a slicer. This is for
touch devices. When you click it, you can then select multiple items using touch input.
Excel 2013 introduced a new Recommended PivotTables button on the Insert ribbon. If
you select a cell in your data set and then click this button, Excel recommends the pivot
tables you might want. If nothing else, this at least gets you started.
Starting in Excel 2016, if you drag a date field to the Rows or Columns area, it is
automatically grouped, say, by month and year. You can then modify the grouping, or
ungroup, if you like.
ungroup, if you like.
List of Topics sheet
Data tables, also called what-if tables, allow you to see very quickly how
one or more outputs change as one or two key inputs change. This is
often called sensitivity analysis, or simply what-if analysis, and it is a key
part of most business models.
Business models are all about what-if questions. What would happen to
profit if our unit cost increased by x%? What would happen to our sales if
our competitor's price decreased by y%? And so on. Data tables are
perfect for answering these types of questions in a systematic way, and
they are quite easy to create. Therefore, it is surprising that so few Excel
users are aware of data tables. This is a very valuable tool, so you should
definitely learn it!
There are two types of data tables: one-way data tables and two-way data
tables. A one-way data table has one input and any number of outputs. A
two-way data table has two inputs but only one output. Both of these are
discussed here.
You find the Data Table option (for one-way or two-way data tables)
under the What-If Analysis dropdown on the Data ribbon, as shown to the
right.
A one-way data table lets you see how one or more selected outputs
change as a single input varies over some range.
To illustrate, suppose you buy a new car for $20,000, make a $5,000
down payment, and finance the remaining amount over the next 36
months at a 6.5% annual interest rate. There are at least two outputs
that might be of interest: the monthly payment and the total interest
paid on the loan. These are affected by the four inputs in blue to the
right.
Lets first look at a simple one-way data table, which illustrates how a
single output, monthly payment, varies as the annual interest rate varies.
This is shown in the example to the right.
Enter a link to the output in cell L39. Specifically, because the monthly
payment was calculated with the PMT function in cell L34, enter the
formula =L34 in cell L39. Then, starting in cell K40, enter any sequence of
interest rates. Next, select the entire tablethe range K39:L44. Then
select Data Table from the What-If Analysis dropdown on the Data
ribbon. Finally, enter L31, the interest rate cell, as the column input cell in
the resulting Data Table dialog box shown to the right. There is no row
input cell, so leave it blank.
If one of the input values along the side of the data table equals the
original value of this input, this provides an internal check of your data
payment was calculated with the PMT function in cell L34, enter the
formula =L34 in cell L39. Then, starting in cell K40, enter any sequence of
interest rates. Next, select the entire tablethe range K39:L44. Then
select Data Table from the What-If Analysis dropdown on the Data
ribbon. Finally, enter L31, the interest rate cell, as the column input cell in
the resulting Data Table dialog box shown to the right. There is no row
input cell, so leave it blank.
If one of the input values along the side of the data table equals the
original value of this input, this provides an internal check of your data
table. In this example, the original annual interest rate, 6.50%, is one of
the values in the data table, and the corresponding monthly payments, in
cells L34 and L42, are both equal to $459.74, as they should be.
You can tell that you have a data table by looking at any of the "answer"
cells, such as cell L40. It contains a formula =TABLE(,L31), surrounded by
curly brackets. The part inside the parentheses shows the row and
column input cells, the first of which is blank in this example. The curly
brackets indicate that this is an array formula. Essentially, this means that
it is entered in all of the answer cells of the data table at once, as a
group. You never need to enter this formula; you should create the table
as explained above. However, the formula documents what the answer
range contains.
Try it! Create a one-way data table to the right, where the monthly
payment is calculated for each price of car from $18,000 to $25,000 in
increments of $1000 (with the down payment fixed at $5000). (Scroll to
the right for the answer.)
An example appears to the right, where the single input is still the interest
rate, but there are two outputs: monthly payment and total interest paid.
This table is formed exactly as before, using the same column input cell,
except that the data table range now includes column M, and there are
links to both outputs in the gray cells.
Try it! Create a one-way data table to the right that shows the monthly
payments and the total interest paid for each value of the number of
payments from 12 to 48, in increments of 12. (Scroll to the right for the
the data table is structured exactly as before.
An example appears to the right, where the single input is still the interest
rate, but there are two outputs: monthly payment and total interest paid.
This table is formed exactly as before, using the same column input cell,
except that the data table range now includes column M, and there are
links to both outputs in the gray cells.
Try it! Create a one-way data table to the right that shows the monthly
payments and the total interest paid for each value of the number of
payments from 12 to 48, in increments of 12. (Scroll to the right for the
answer.)
Two-way tables allow you to vary two inputs, one along a row and one
along a column, and capture a single output in the body of the table. The
example to the right illustrates this, where the annual interest rate and
the amount of the down payment both vary, and the single output is the
monthly payment.
Enter the formula =L34 for the single output in the upper left corner, cell
K102, of the data table. (Again, this cell has been colored gray for
emphasis.) Enter any sequence of down payments to the right of this and
any sequence of interest rates below this. Next, select Data Table from
the What-If Analysis dropdown, and enter L29 as the row input cell and
L31 as the column input cell as shown to the right.
As with one-way tables, you can tell you have a data table by looking at
any of the "answer" cells, such as cell L103. Each contains the formula
=TABLE(L29,L31), surrounded by curly brackets. This formula indicates
that cell L29 is the row input cell and cell L31 is the column input cell. In
words, the values for down payment go across the top row of the table,
and the values for interest rate go down the left column of the table.
Remember that a two-way data table allows only one output. If you want
to analyze multiple outputs, you have to create multiple two-way data
tables, one for each output.
Try it! Create a two-way data table to the right that calculates the total
interest paid for each value of the number of payments from 12 to 60 in
increments of 12, and each down payment from $4000 to $6000 in
increments of $1000. Put the down payments along the top and the
numbers of payments along the side. (Scroll to the right for the answer.)
Some data tables are very long (many rows), and each value might require
the recalculation of a complex business model. Therefore, the recalculation
Recalculation and Data Tables
Some data tables are very long (many rows), and each value might require
the recalculation of a complex business model. Therefore, the recalculation
of the entire data table can take a while, several seconds or even minutes.
For this reason, Excel allows you to select the Automatic Except for Data
Tables calculation option from the Formulas ribbon, as shown to the right.
In this case, the data tables won't recalculate until you force them to by
pressing the F9 key.
Try it again! Check that the calculation setting is Automatic (the default
setting), and create any data table to the right. Next, change the calculation
setting from Automatic to Automatic Except for Data Tables and create the
data table again. You should see the same value throughout the table,
which is disconcerting. But you can press the F9 key to get the correct
answers. Then change the calculation setting back to Automatic.
List of Topics sheet
Payment model
Price of car $20,000
Down payment $5,000
Amount financed $15,000
Annual interest rate 6.50%
Number of payments 36
Data table
Interest rate Monthly payment
$459.74
6.00%
6.25%
6.50%
6.75%
7.00%
Data Table dialog box
Data table
Interest Monthly payment Total interest
$459.74 $1,550.46
6.00%
6.25%
6.50%
6.75%
7.00%
Data table for exercise
Number of payments Monthly payment Total interest
Do you remember your high school algebra class where you had to solve
a single equation for a single unknown value? You can do this in Excel
with the Goal Seek tool. The unknown is called a changing cell.
Essentially, you want to change the value in this cell to force a formula in
some other cell to equal a specified value.
A simple example of this appears below and to the right. Demand for a
company's product is determined by a linear demand curve: the higher
the price, the lower the demand. The company produces exactly enough
to meet demand, with the given fixed and variable costs of production.
The company wants to find the breakeven price, that is, the price that
makes profit equal to 0. This breakeven price can be found with Goal
Seek. Here are the steps. (Before you do this, you might see if you can
find the breakeven price by trial and error, by entering different values in
cell L32. If nothing else, this will help you understand the model better,
and it will give you a better appreciation of Goal Seek.)
1. Choose Goal Seek from the What-If Analysis dropdown on the Data
ribbon (see to the right)
2. Fill in the Goal Seek dialog box as shown to the right. Specifically, the
price in cell L32 should be changed so that the profit in cell L39 is driven
to 0.
If you try this, you will see the Goal Seek Status dialog box to the right,
and you will see that the the price should be set to $22.57. This price
makes demand equal to 3900, so the company sells 3900 units and
makes $2.57 on each of them, which is just enough to offset the $10,000
fixed cost. The calculations with this unit price are shown in column N.
Try it! Use Goal Seek to find the price that makes profit equal to $30,000.
Note: For numerical reasons, Goal Seek doesn't force profit to exactly the
value you specify; it sometimes only gets close. If this isn't close enough,
you can change an Excel setting to make it closer. Go to Excel Options
and choose the Formulas group. (See below and to the right.) Then
change the "Maximum Change" to a smaller value (more zeros to the
right of the decimal).
List of Topics sheet
Profit model
Fixed cost $10,000 $10,000
Variable cost $20.00 $20.00
Unit price $25.00 $22.57
Profit $9,375 $0
Solver is an add-in that ships with Excel but is developed by Frontline Systems,
not Microsoft. It is used for constrained optimization models. There is much
more about Solver models than can possibly be covered here, but basically,
you must first develop a spreadsheet model that starts with numerical inputs
and values of decision variables (called changing cells), and then uses
formulas that capture the business logic and eventually lead to an objective,
such as profit or total cost, that you want to maximize or minimize. Then you
fill out a Solver dialog box to indicate the objective, the changing cells,
constraints that must be satisfied, and appropriate options. When you click
the Solve button, the add-in uses powerful algorithms to find the optimal
solution.
A simple optimization model appears to the far right. The objective is to find
the minimum-cost way to send units of some product from manufacturing
plants to customer regions so that plant capacities are not exceeded and
regional demands are met. The blue ranges contain given inputs (the unit cost
of transportation from plant sites to regions, the demands in the regions, and
the capacities of the plants), the red cells are the changing cells, and the gray
cell is the objective to minimize. You can check the formulas in the yellow and
gray cells that capture the business logic. The formulas are very simple for this
model, but the logic can be much more complex in other models.
You then invoke Solver from the Data ribbon and fill out its main dialog box as
shown to the right for Excel 2010 or later versions. (Scroll down for equivalent
screenshots in pre-2010 versions of Solver. There you have to go to an
Options dialog box to complete the settings.) When you click the Solve
button, you will see the Solver Results dialog box shown to the right, and the
solution in the red changing cells to the right will be found, regardless of the
original values in the red cells. This solution minimizes total cost, while
satisfying capacity and demand constraints.
Note: If Solver is not on your Data ribbon, you will need to add it in. Click the
File menu and Options in Excel 2010 or later (or the Office button and then
Excel options in Excel 2007), then Add-ins, and then the Go button. Check the
Solver item to add it in. If Solver isn't in the list below, you will need to run the
Office installer to install it.
First, the user interface has been streamlined, as shown to the right. In particular, for
most optimization models, you no longer need to go to the Options dialog box. You
can now check the nonnegativity option and choose an appropriate Solver algorithm
from this initial screen.
Actually, there are other differences "under the hood" in the improved Solver. In
short, it works better. Frontline Systems has many Solver products, one of which was
known as Premium Solver (and had to be purchased separately). Now the improved
Solver introduced in Excel 2010 is essentially the old Premium Solver.
short, it works better. Frontline Systems has many Solver products, one of which was
known as Premium Solver (and had to be purchased separately). Now the improved
Solver introduced in Excel 2010 is essentially the old Premium Solver.
List of Topics sheet
Units shipped
From
Total cost
To
Units shipped Region 1 Region 2 Region 3 Region 4 Total shipped Capacity
Plant 1 150 0 0 300 450 <= 450
Plant 2 100 200 0 0 300 <= 600
Plant 3 200 0 300 0 500 <= 500
Total received 450 200 300 300
>= >= >= >=
Demand 450 200 300 300
$176,050
Solver Options dialog box in pre-2010 versions
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Power BI
Data Model
The Data Model introduced in Excel 2013 is a technology that lets you work with
multiple-table data sets, all within Excel. The tables can be from a variety of sources,
including text files, Web pages, relational databases, and others. Also, because of the
special way the data are stored in a Data Model, the tables can be huge, even multi-
million row tables. Excel tools can then be used to relate the tables (assuming they
are relatable through key fields). Finally, pivot tables or reports can be created from
the underlying Data Model. Similar functionality has been possible in Excel for years,
but it always required you to create a relational database first, with Access or another
database system, or relate Excel tables with multiple VLOOKUPS. Now you can do it
much more easily, entirely with Excel tools.
Once you have a Data Model in an Excel workbook, you will probably use Power Pivot
to create pivot tables based on the data. In fact, it is easy to confuse Data Model with
Power Pivot, and many users believe that they are the same thing. They are not.
Actually, your version of Office, such as Office 365 Home, might contain the Data
Model but not Power Pivot. (You get Power Pivot only with a higher version of Office,
such as Professional Plus.) In this case, the Data Model allows you to store and relate
tables from various sources, and to build pivot tables (or reports) from the data.
However, without Power Pivot, you don't get a user interface for working with the
Data Model, and you don't get various advanced tools available with Power Pivot.
If you have Power Pivot, you can learn some of its tools from the Power Pivot topic in
this tutorial. But even if you don't have Power Pivot, you can still use the Data Model
to perform powerful data analysis, as discussed next.
Important note: The following instructions apply to Excel 2013 or later with Power
Pivot installed. (The screenshots come from Excel 2016, and there might be slight
differences in Excel 2013.)
Assume there are three sources of external data: (1) an Access database with five
tables, related as shown above to the right; (2) a Stores file in Excel which will
eventually be related to the Sales table through the StoreKey fields; and (3) a comma-
delimited (csv) Geography file which will eventually be related to the Stores table
through the GeographyKey fields.
1. Click the Manage button on the Power Pivot tab. This takes you to a Power Pivot
window where you can manage, and see, your eventual Data Model. The window has
several tabs and associated ribbons, but only the Home ribbon is used here.
2. Select From Access from the From Database dropdown. Browse to the Access file
and then check all of the tables, all five of them, to be imported. Once you click
Finish, the data will not be loaded into physicial Excel tables; they will be loaded into
the Data Model.
2. Repeat step 1 for the single table in the Stores file. This time you will select Excel
File from the From Other Sources list. The user interface will be slightly different, but
the process is straightforward. (In the second step of the wizard, it is a good idea to
change the Friendly Name from Data to Stores, which shows up in the tab to the
right.)
3. Repeat step 2 with obvious modifications to import the data from the Geography
file. This time you will select Text File from the From Other Sources list.
4. The imported data now appear as seven tabs in Data View of the Power Pivot
window, very much like an Excel spreadsheet.
5. You can click the Diagram View button to see the relationships between the tables.
The first five tables are already related because they were related in the Access file.
change the Friendly Name from Data to Stores, which shows up in the tab to the
right.)
3. Repeat step 2 with obvious modifications to import the data from the Geography
file. This time you will select Text File from the From Other Sources list.
4. The imported data now appear as seven tabs in Data View of the Power Pivot
window, very much like an Excel spreadsheet.
5. You can click the Diagram View button to see the relationships between the tables.
The first five tables are already related because they were related in the Access file.
However, the Stores and Geography tables need to be related. This can be done by
dragging from the StoreKey field in the Sales table to the StoreKey field in the Stores
table, and dragging from the GeographyKey field in the Stores table to the
GeographyKey field in the Geography table. The completed diagram view is shown to
the far right.
You have now created a Data Model, which is really just a set of related tables. It is
stored with the Excel file, but it is stored very compactly, and you can see it only in
the Power Pivot window. Then you can click the PivotTable button on the Home
ribbon of the Power Pivot window to create a pivot table in the usual way, based on
any or all of the related tables. Alternatively, you can close the Power Pivot window
and create a pivot table in the usual way from the Insert ribbon, as shown below.
Note, however, that the source for the pivot table is now the Data Model.
The method explained here for creating a Data Model is not the only possible
method. Watch the companion video to see another slightly different method.
Access database related tables
Power Pivot
The Excel Data Model, described in another topic in this tutorial, lets you
relate tables of data much like relational database software has been doing
for decades, but now it is done entirely inside Excel. The current topic
discusses Power Pivot, arguably the most popular component of the Power BI
suite. Power Pivot, as the name suggests, is related to pivot tables, but Power
Pivot is more flexible and provides more powerful tools than normal pivot
table tools. In part, it is a front end, or user interface, for working with the
Data Model, but it is much more. You can build pivot tables from a Data
Model without using Power Pivot, but Power Pivot makes the process easier
and it provides many advanced options.
Power Pivot does not ship with all versions of Office. At least for Office 2016,
you need the Professional Plus version or higher. And even if you have Power
Pivot, it is an add-in that you need to load. To do so, make sure the Developer
tab is visible. (If it isn't, right-click a ribbon, select Customize the Ribbon, and
check the Developer item in the right pane of the resulting Customize dialog
box.) Then check the Power Pivot item in the COM add-ins list. (If this item is
not in your list, then your version of Office does not include Power Pivot.)
Once Power Pivot is loaded, you will see a Power Pivot tab with the
associated ribbon shown to the right.
Probably your first question is how the Data Model and Power Pivot benefit
you. Here are the main benefits:
1. The Data Model and/or Power Pivot let you merge data from multiple
tables without using database software or VLOOKUPs within Excel. As the
Data Model topic in this tutorial indicates, it is now easy to manage
relationships across tables by using primary and foreign keys, all within Excel.
2. The Data Model and/or Power Pivot enable you to base a pivot table on
huge tables with millions of rows. They are limited only by the 2GB maximum
file size for a workbook and your computer's available memory.
3. With Power Pivot, you can create measures with the DAX (Data Analysis
Expressions) language. This is probably the most difficult part of Power Pivot
to master, but it is worth the effort. Measures with DAX provide many more
possibilities than regular pivot table calculated fields, and they can be
extremely powerful. (Note: Microsoft has gone back and forth on the
terminology. The original term used was "measures." Then in Excel 2013, they
were renamed "calculated fields." Now with Excel 2016, the original term
"measures" is back, and most analysts are glad to see it. In addition, Microsoft
finally had the sense to put a space between Power and Pivot!)
The rest of this explanation assumes that you do have Power Pivot and that it
is loaded. Now you are ready to get started. Because the procedure requires
quite a few steps, only a brief discussion of the procedure is given here.
Power View
Power View is an add-in in the Power BI suite that lets you create quick but
insightful reports based on data in a Data Model.
Power View does not ship with all versions of Office. At least for Office 2016,
you need the Professional Plus version or higher. And even if you have Power
View, it is an add-in that you need to load. To do so, make sure the Developer
tab is visible. (If it isn't, right-click a ribbon, select Customize the Ribbon, and
check the Developer item in the right pane of the resulting Customize dialog
box.) Then check the Power View item in the COM add-ins list. (If this item is
not in your list, then your version of Office does not include Power View.)
Once Power View is loaded, you should see a Power View item on one of the
ribbons -- but you don't. For some reason, Microsoft deleted the Power View
button that was on the Insert ribbon in Excel 2013. However, it is still available
by customizing the ribbon. To do so, right-click any ribbon, select Customize
the Ribbon, select Insert a Power View Report from the All Commands list on
the left, and drag it to a ribbon (and a position on the ribbon) of your choice. I
did this, adding the Power View button to the Insert ribbon (as it was in Excel
2013), as shown to the right.
The rest of this explanation assumes that you do have Power View and that it
is loaded and available. Now you are ready to get started. Because Power
View provides so many options, only a brief discussion is given here.
The 3D Map option, available on the Insert ribbon, implements the Power
Map tool in the Power BI suite. It lets you create maps of geographical
information with a few clicks. The example to the right is typical. The data
set lists the numbers of customers for some product in various states and
cities. To get the map on the right, just select any cell in the data range
and click Open 3D Maps. A 3D map opens in a new window, and from
there, it is just a matter of adding elements to the map. You could State
probably read a long explanation of the various options, but it's better to California
simply experiment. The map shown, with a bubble for each city with size
proportional to the number of customers, required only a couple mouse California
clicks. California
Florida
The map to the right is a static map. To make it dynamic, you could change
the data set to have a date column, with the number of customers in each Florida
city and state listed for each date. Then you could "play" the resulting map Florida
to show the changes in time.
Florida
Try it! Do exactly what the preceding paragraph suggests. You can make Florida
up the dates and the customer data. Michigan
Michigan
Michigan
Michigan
New York
New York
New York
New York
Texas
Texas
Texas
Texas
City Customers
Los Angeles 43498
San Francisco 28760
Sacramento 15083
Tallahassee 5963
Miami 29036
Orlando 22176
Tampa 25735
Jacksonville 16327
Detroit 38216
Ann Arbor 12741
East Lansing 7667
Grand Rapids 10145
New York 41963
Buffalo 22336
Rochester 18605
Syracuse 12470
Houston 37776
Dallas 40597
San Antonio 18013
Austin 23476
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
The screenshots to the right indicate the possible sources of data when
you click the New Query dropdown. As an example, if you query the
Northwind Access database, this leads to the Power Query Navigator to
the right. If you choose the Products table, you see a preview of the data
in this table. By clicking the Edit Query button, an Editor opens with a
variety of options for "shaping" the query.
There are multiple ways to use Power Query to "join" relatable tables.
1. For tables from a relational source such as Access, you can join the
tables inside Access and save the result as an Access query. Then you can
use Power Query to import this saved query as a table.
2. You can use Power Query multiple times, each time importing a single
table. Then you can use its Merge option to join the queries, resulting in
a single joined table.
3. You can use Power Query multiple times, each time importing a single
table. Then you can use its Load To option to load each table to an Excel
Data Model. Then you can use Excel's Relationships tool to create
relationships between the tables. Power Query Navigator
Note that any queries you create with Power Query are saved with the
Excel workbook. Then to see and possibly edit any of them, you can click
Show Queries on the Data ribbon. This opens a Workbook Queries pane
at the right of the worksheet.
If you are used to the older tools for importing data into Excel, you might
question whether it is worth your time to learn a new set of tools. There
are several good reasons for doing so.
2. Even when the Power Query sources are the same as with Get External
Data, Power Query improves on the native functionality. For example,
Power Query is able to extract from far more Web pages than the "From
Web" option in Get External Data.
3. Queries with Power Query are saved as a series of steps, so they can
be automated with a single click at a later time. This saves a lot of
repetitive work if you perform the same types of queries on a regular
basis.
3. Queries with Power Query are saved as a series of steps, so they can
be automated with a single click at a later time. This saves a lot of
repetitive work if you perform the same types of queries on a regular
basis.
5. Assuming you have the right version of SharePoint, you can share
queries from Power Query with other users.
Queries options
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Excel's strength lies in its ability to analyze data. However, the data you
want to analyze will not always reside in an Excel worksheet. The data
might be on a Web site, in a text file, in a database, or in some other
source. The question, then, is how you can import the required data into
Excel. Fortunately, Excel has some very powerful tools for importing data,
both "old" and "new." The older tools, discussed in this section of the
tutorial, have been part of Excel for years, and they still work fine. You can
find them in the Get External Data group on the Data ribbon, shown to
the right. (Depending on the size of the Excel window, the Get External
Data group might appear as a single Get External Data dropdown.)
The newer tools comprise Power Query, part of the Power BI suite that is
discussed in another section of this tutorial. These tools are in the Get &
Transform group to the right of the Get External Data group.
Many Excel users are comfortable using the older tools and will probably
continue to use them (assuming that Microsoft continues to support
them). However, if you are new to importing external data, we highly
recommend the newer Power Query tools.
Get External Data on Data ribbon
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Data sets are often stored in "plain vanilla" text files, usually with a .txt, .dat,
or .prn extension, simply because everyone can view text files. All you need is
a text editor, such as Notepad. Fortunately, Excel has a wizard for importing
data from a text file into Excel. It is easy to use, but you have to be careful that
everything lines up properly in the import.
Text files come in two varieties: fixed width and delimited. In a fixed width
data set, each variable starts in the same column. For example, First Name
might be in columns 1-15, Last Name might be in columns 16-30, and so on.
This is a carryover from the old days of IBM punched cards, but fixed width
text files are still fairly common. In contrast, in a delimited text file, pieces of
data are separated by a delimiter character, the most common being a space,
a tab, a common, and a semicolon. You can tell that a data set is delimited
when you open it in a text editor and see that the columns don't line up; they
are "ragged."
Once you understand this distinction, importing text data is easy. To do so,
click the From Text button in the Get External Data group on the Data ribbon
(see to the right), and then browse to find your text file. This launches a
three-step wizard, shown in the three dialog boxes to the right.
In the first dialog box, you can see from the data in the first few rows that the
data are not fixed width, so Delimited is the correct choice. You also have the
option to start the import at a row other than the first row. Text files often
have data you don't want to import in the first few rows.
In the second dialog box, you can choose the delimiter, in this case, a comma.
In the third dialog box, you can fine-tune the import, but it usually suffices to
click the Finish button. If any fine-tuning is necessary, you can do it in Excel.
There is a final dialog box, not shown here, where you can select the location
of the imported data. For this example, the imported data are listed below.
Always look carefully at the imported data to make sure everything lines up
correctly. If it doesn't, you have to fix the imported data or fix something in
the original text file. One "small" error, such as when some of the Salary
values end up in the Age column, can completely mess up the data to be
analyzed.
Note: Starting in Excel 2016, another option is to use Power Query, which is
discussed in another topic in this tutorial. (You select From File and then From
Text from the New Query dropdown.
Faculty Support StaSupply Budget
Credit HourResearch Pubs
Business
150 70 5
15 225
Education
60 20 3
5.4 70
Arts & Sciences
800 140 20
56 1300
HPER
30 15 1
2.1 40
No. 2
List of Topics sheet
The other topics in this section of the tutorial explain how to import data
from the Web or from a text file. Although these operations are common,
they probably aren't as common as the importing method described
here: importing data from a database. This is a huge topic, and this
tutorial only scratches the surface.
There are many database packages available for storing data, including
Microsoft Access (part of the Office suite) and many server-based
systems such as Microsoft's SQL Server, Oracle's RDBMS, IBM's DB2, and
others. Fortunately, all of these store data in essentially the same way: as
related tables, where each table stores information about a particular
entity such as a product, a customer, or a vendor. Also, they all use
essentially the same query language, Structured Query Language, or SQL,
to retrieve specific subsets of the data. Because of this commonality
across database packages, technologies have been developed over the
past two decades that allow users, often programmers, to import
database data into applications, including Excel.
The simplest way to import database data into Excel, and the only one
described in detail here, is to use the From Access button in the Get Named queries (top icons
External Data group on the Data ribbon, shown above and to the right.
After you then browse for an Access database file, you have two options.
The first is to import one or more tables. (The option to select multiple
tables was introduced in Excel 2013.)
The second possibility is more flexible. You can import data from a
named query in an Access file. For example, the list to the right includes
several named queries from the famous Northwind database provided by
Microsoft. This means that you should first create queries of interest in
Access, and save them, before importing the data into Excel. Of course,
this assumes that you know how to create queries through Access's user
interface. This is not difficult, but it takes some practice.
Other import options appear under the From Other Sources dropdown
list shown to the right. The most common of these is From Microsoft
Query. Only the outline of the procedure is given here. Basically, it is a
three-step process.
1. You identify the data source and the type of database you have:
Access, SQL Server, Oracle, or whatever. In case of a server-based system,
you must identify the server and probably provide a valid username and Microsoft Query in the Fro
password.
2. You create a query for the data you want. You can do this through a
user interface that is very similar to the one in Access, or you can enter
an SQL statement directly.
Note: Starting in Excel 2016, another option is to use Power Query, which
is discussed in another topic in this tutorial. (You select From Database
and then From Microsoft Access Database from the New Query
dropdown.
From Access button on Data ribbon
Named queries (top icons) and tables (bottom icons) in Northwind database
Microsoft Query in the From Other Sources list on the Data ribbon
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Web Queries
To say the least, there is an abundance of interesting data on the Web. Because
Web authors can design their sites in a variety of ways, there is no guarantee
that the Web data can be imported easily into Excel, but it is worth trying with a
Web query, a simple and powerful tool.
To understand how Web queries work, you need to understand a little about
Web pages. They are all written in HTML, a markup language that has "tags" to
identify different parts of a page. One such tag is the Table tag. It often indicates
a rectangular array of data, but it is also used for all sorts of things that aren't
really tables. In any case, a Web query can import anything that is surrounded
by table tags. You can then decide which "tables" are of interest to you.
Try it! First open your browser, locate a website that has data you want to
import, and copy its URL. For this example, you could use the URL for monthly
IBM stock prices from November 2013 back to 2000:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?
s=IBM&a=0&b=1&c=2000&d=10&e=1&f=2013&g=m
Then, starting in a blank workbook, click From Web in the Get External Data
dropdown on the Data ribbon, as shown above and to the right. This opens the
New Web Query dialog box to the right. Paste your URL into the Address box
and click Go. The Web page will open, hopefully with one or more yellow
arrows corresponding to the table tags on the page. Find the one(s) you want
and click them, which changes them to green check marks. Then click Import.
The Import Data dialog box to the right lets you choose where to start the
import. Just make sure there is plenty of blank space below and to the right of
the selected cell. Note that not all of the data are imported. This particular
website sends back only a certain number of data items per query.
Excel remembers the source of this data and keeps a link to it. The connection in
the current workbook was removed, but to see it in your own workbook, you
can click the Connections button on the Data ribbon. You will see the Workbook
Connections dialog box to the right. (The connection has the generic name
Connection, but it can be renamed as shown. ) From here, you can do several
things. First, in case the Web data change through time, you can click Refresh to
get the newest data. Second, you can click Properties, then the Definition tab,
and then the Edit Query button to return to the New Web Query dialog box.
Finally, if you don't want a live link to the website, you can click Remove, as was
done here.
Note: Unfortunately, the Web query method described above doesn't work on a
lot of promising websites. The good news, however, is that, starting with Excel
2016, you can import Web data with Power Query, described in another topic in
this tutorial. (You select From Other Sources and then From Web from the New
Query dropdown.) Our experience is that the Power Query method works on
many websites where the "old" method described above does not work.
List of Topics sheet
General Documentation
Insert comment
Cell Comments
Try it! Add the following cell comment to the gray cell to the right: Sales
are in $1000s. Then change the comment to: Monthly sales in $1000s.
Then delete the cell comment.
For more on cell comments, visit the Comments group on the Review
ribbon. You might not ever use all of these buttons, but they could be
handy if someone gives you a spreadsheet with a lot of cell comments,
and you want to browse through them quickly.
To insert a text box, click the Text Box button on the Insert ribbon, as
shown to the right, and drag a text box in some area of the worksheet.
next line, etc.? Many people do this, but it is not a good habit, mostly
because of the difficulty of editing. It is much better to use text boxes, as
you see throughout this tutorial. Text boxes are much better for
explanations than cells because they have word wrap. They are
essentially mini-word processors that can be edited (and moved or
resized) easily. You should use them in virtually every spreadsheet you
create!
To insert a text box, click the Text Box button on the Insert ribbon, as
shown to the right, and drag a text box in some area of the worksheet.
Then start typing. It's as easy as that.
You might also want to change the appearance of the text box. To do so,
click it twice so that the border becomes a solid line. (It's a dashed line
after the first click). Then you will see a Drawing Tools Format tab and
associated ribbon where you can make all sorts of changes. For example,
in this tutorial all text boxes are rounded in two corners and have a blue
border. If you like the appearance, you can right-click the text box and
choose the Set as Default Text Box item. Then every other text box you
create in that workbook will automatically have the same appearance.
Try it! Create a text box to the right and enter some text. Then see if you
format it like the text boxes in this tutorial.
Note again that if you click a text box once, its border becomes a dashed
line. If you then click it again, it becomes a solid line. The options
available are slightly different in these two cases. For example, if you
want to delete a text box, you should make the border a solid line and
then press the Delete key. In contrast, if you press the Delete key when
the border is dashed, you will delete some text.
When you add text boxes (or other shapes such as circles, rectangles, and
arrows) to a worksheet, they essentially "float" above the worksheet cells. If
you then insert rows or columns under these shapes, or if you change row
heights or column widths under them, the shapes might move or expand. You
might want this behavior, or you might not. In either case, you can control the
behavior. To do so, right-click a shape, such as a text box, and select Size and
Properties. The dialog box to the right appears. (This is for Excel 2013, where
the user interface changed noticably.) You can then select the "Object
positioning" option you want under Properties. For example, if you want the
shape to stay fixed in the same size and position, select the "Don't move or
size with cells" option, as shown here.
By default, a shape such as an oval is opaque, with a blue fill and a darker blue
border. But if you select it, you get the Drawing Tools Format tab and
associated ribbon, where you can format the shape in an endless number of
ways.
Insert comment Edit or Delete comment Sales
15.3
14.7
9.6
12.1
14.2
Conditional Formatting bu
Background on Conditional Formatting
Conditional formatting was available before Excel 2007, but it wasn't very
prominent, and many users didn't even know it was available. Now it is
very prominent, right in the middle of the Home ribbon, as shown to the
right. It is also much easier to use. As illustrated here, most uses of
conditional formatting are really easy, but a few are tricky.
The user interface for conditional formatting is shown in the screenshots
to the right. When you click the Conditional Formatting button on the
Home ribbon, you see five categories of built-in conditional formatting
rules: Highlight Cell Rules to Icon Sets. Each of these leads to a list of
possibilities. For example, the Highlight Cell Rules options and
Top/Bottom Rules options are shown to the right. These are all fairly self-
explanatory: you select a range, click one of these options, and specify
parameters and a format to apply a rule.
There are also three options at the bottom of the main Conditional
Formatting list: New Rule, Clear Rules, and Manage Rules. The New
Formatting Rule dialog box shown to the right lets you build a new rule,
and the possibilities are almost unlimited. The Clear Rules option (dialog
box not shown) lets you delete rules for the selected range or for the
entire workbook. Finally, the Manage Rules dialog box shown to the right New Formatting Rule dialo
lets you see and edit the rules, if any, for the current selection or any of
the worksheets in the current workbook.
Exam score
Applying Some Simple Conditional Formatting 62
Person
Other Built-in Conditional Formatting Possibilities 1
2
As you can see when you click the Conditional Formatting dropdown,
there are a lot of built-in choices that are very easy to apply. Try out some 3
of the following: 4
5
The Highlight Cell rules let you format numbers that satisfy inequalities, as
in the example above, and they also let you format text or dates that 6
satisfy natural conditions. 7
8
The Top/Bottom rules let you format the top (or bottom) x items (or x
percent of items), where you can choose x. For example, you can format 9
the maximum number in a list by specifying the top 1 item. 10
11
The Data Bars, Color Scales, and Icon Sets are amazing -- and they can be
overdone. The point of all of them is to differentiate levels of values, such 12
as salaries or sales values. 13
Try it! Use any interesting formats you like to format the dates, text, or 14
numbers to the right. Remember that you can always modify the formats 15
or clear them. 16
17
Try it! Use any interesting formats you like to format the dates, text, or
numbers to the right. Remember that you can always modify the formats
or clear them.
18
19
20
21
22
Scroll down for more below 23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Month
Building Your Own Conditional Formatting Rules with Formulas Jan-13
Feb-13
You can get even more control by building your own rules. You do this by Mar-13
clicking Conditional Formatting and then New Rule. The resulting dialog
box has more options than can be explained here, but the following Apr-13
explains one typical and useful possibility. May-13
Jun-13
The data set to the right contains monthly sales data for six regions.
Actually, they have been entered as random numbers with the Jul-13
RANDBETWEEN function, so if you press the F9 key, they will all change Aug-13
in a random way. (This makes the example even more impressive!)
Suppose you want to color the maximum sales value in each column Sep-13
green. One way is to do it separately for each column, formatting the top Oct-13
1 item as explained above. However, this would take too much time, Nov-13
especially if there were many more columns. Here is a better way.
Dec-13
1. Select all the dollar values, dragging from the top left cell. This makes
the top left cell the active cell, the one in white.
3. In the "Format values where this formula is true:" box, enter the
formula
=(L107=MAX(L$107:L$118)). Make sure you get the dollar signs right.
Then select a green format of your choice.
Try it! Apply the above steps to the sales data. Apply a similar formula to
format the minimum value in each column red. Then press the F9 key a
few times and watch how the green and red cells bounce around.
Once you understand how this formula works, you can do some amazing
conditional formatting. Remember that you selected the entire sales
range, but L107 is the active cell because you started the dragging from
it. The formula as written applies to cell L107. Specifically, if its value is
the maximum value in column L, it is formatted green. But because the
entire sales range is selected, the formula is applied, in a
relative/absolute sense, to each cell in the range. The rows in the MAX
function are absolute because the maximum is always over these rows,
but the columns in the MAX function are relative because you want this
formula to apply to all cells in all columns. And L107 is totally relative
because you want this rule to be applied to every cell in the range.
it. The formula as written applies to cell L107. Specifically, if its value is
the maximum value in column L, it is formatted green. But because the
entire sales range is selected, the formula is applied, in a
relative/absolute sense, to each cell in the range. The rows in the MAX
function are absolute because the maximum is always over these rows,
but the columns in the MAX function are relative because you want this
formula to apply to all cells in all columns. And L107 is totally relative
because you want this rule to be applied to every cell in the range.
Conditional Formatting button on Home ribbon
Conditional Formatting options Higlight Cell Rules options Top/Bottom Rules options
At some point, you might be developing spreadsheets for others to use, and
you might want to force them to use certain values in certain cells because
other values wouldn't make sense or wouldn't satisfy business rules. You can
do this fairly easily with data validation. There are actually many possibilities,
but only the most common are illustrated here. All of the options are found
from the Data Validation item on the Data ribbon shown to the right. This
leads to the fairly self-explanatory Data Validation dialog box also shown to
the right. All of the examples below assume you have selected the cell you
want to validate, and they assume that you have opened this dialog box and
have chosen the Settings tab.
Choose Whole Number (if you want only integers) or Decimal in the Allow
dropdown list, choose Between from the resulting Data dropdown, and
enter values in the Min and Max boxes. You can also place cell references
in the Min and Max boxes. You can experiment with the other options in
the Data dropdown. They are all quite straightforward.
The Data Validation dialog box has two other tabs, Input Message and
Error Alert. The first allows you to create a message that the user sees
when the cell is selected. The second allows you to create a message that
appears if an incorrect value is entered in the cell.
Try it! Force the values in the gray cells in column K to have values
indicated by the labels to their right. Add your own input messages and
error alerts. Then try entering appropriate and inappropriate values in the
gray cells.
Probably the easiest data validation is to allow the user to choose from a
dropdown list of values. To do this, first create the list in some column,
usually out of sight to the far right. Then from the Allow dropdown in the
Data Validation dialog box, select List, and in the Source box, provide a cell
reference to the list. That's all you need to do. When the user selects the
cell to be validated, a dropdown arrow automatically appears, with the
values in the list to choose from.
Try it! The example to the right lets a user enter an amount to be financed,
an annual interest rate, and a term (number of months to pay), and it
returns the monthly payment (using the PMT function that has already
been entered). Create a list in a column out to the right that contains the
possible terms: 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60, and then create a data validation for
usually out of sight to the far right. Then from the Allow dropdown in the
Data Validation dialog box, select List, and in the Source box, provide a cell
reference to the list. That's all you need to do. When the user selects the
cell to be validated, a dropdown arrow automatically appears, with the
values in the list to choose from.
Try it! The example to the right lets a user enter an amount to be financed,
an annual interest rate, and a term (number of months to pay), and it
returns the monthly payment (using the PMT function that has already
been entered). Create a list in a column out to the right that contains the
possible terms: 12, 24, 36, 48, and 60, and then create a data validation for
the term cell that lets the user choose from these values. Check that it
works.
Validating a Date
Suppose you want to make sure the person enters a valid date in a cell.
This is a great place for data validation. By choosing the Date option from
the Allow dropdown list, you can force users to enter only values that are
recognized as dates. This is no small achievement!
In addition, you can put limits on the dates. For example, suppose you
want the person to enter the date she took out a loan. This must not only
be a date, but it can't be in the future. To allow only such dates, you can
select "less than or equal to" from the Data dropdown and then enter the
following formula in the End date box: =TODAY(). The effect is that the user
will not be allowed to enter a future date, regardless of today's date.
Try it! Create the date validation just described in the gray cell to the right.
Then enter incorrect and correct entries to see how it works. (Can you
change it so that only dates that are at least a week ago are allowed? Just
change the formula slightly.)
List of Topics sheet
Date of loan
for these values)
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
If you create an Excel file for others to use, you probably don't want
them to mess up the formulas you entered so carefully. In fact, you might
not even want them to see the formulas. Maybe they are company
secrets. Excel gives you plenty of options for protecting, or unprotecting,
your work. Only a few of them are explained here. You can then Protect Sheet dialog box
experiment with others.
The key idea is locking cells. Right-click any cell on this worksheet, select
Format Cells, and click the Protection tab. You will see that the Locked
option is checked. By default, all cells are locked until you unlock them.
However, this locking has no effect until you protect the worksheet (or
the workbook). Therefore, protecting is a two-step process.
1. Unlock all cells you want users to have access to. These are typically
input cells where a user can enter data like unit cost, amount ordered,
and so on.
Developer Ribbon
Developer Ribbon
There is one built-in tab in Excel 2007 and later versions, the Developer
tab, that is not visible by default. It is primarily for developers, those who
create applications for others to use, usually with macros, but it has other
uses as well, so it is a good idea to make its tab visible.
To make the Developer tab visible (in Excel 2010 and later versions):
Checking the Developer ta
Right-click any ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon to display the
dialog box to the right. In the right pane, check the Developer option. If
there is no Developer item in the right pane, go to the left pane, select All
Tabs from the "Choose commands from" dropdown list, select the
Developer tab, and click the Add>> button to move it to the right pane.
One advantage of showing the Developer ribbon is that you can get to the
list of add-ins (either "regular" add-ins or COM add-ins) with a click of a
button. Without these buttons, the ones circled to the right, it takes four
clicks to get to either add-ins list.
Developer Ribbon
Checking the Developer tab in Customize view (in Excel 2010 and later)
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
When you fill out an online questionnaire, or when you work with almost
any Windows program, you continually see "controls" such as radio
buttons, check boxes, text boxes, buttons, dropdown lists, and others.
You probably don't even think about how these work because you see
them so often.
The good news it is that you can add these controls to Excel worksheets,
and it is remarkably easy, with no programming required. The first thing
you should do is make the Developer ribbon visible. To do so, right-click
any ribbon, select Customize the Ribbon, and check the Developer item
in the right pane of the resulting dialog box. Once the Developer ribbon
is visible, click the Insert dropdown to see the list of controls shown to
the right. There are two groups, the "easy" Form Controls and the
"advanced" ActiveX Controls. The latter require some programming, so
only the Form Controls are discussed here.
To insert any of these controls on a worksheet, click the control and then
drag it where you want it. The control comes alive knowing the behavior
it ought to have. For example, option buttons (also called radio buttons)
know that only one of them can be checked, whereas check boxes know
that any number of them can be checked.
An invoice application has already been created to the right, using the
following steps.
1. Create the frame at the top by clicking the Group Box form control and
dragging it to a desired location. Then change its label to Product
purchased.
2. Insert three option buttons inside the frame by clicking the Option
Button form control and then dragging them inside the frame. Then
change their labels to the product names.
3. Insert a check box (outside of the frame) for preferred customers, and
change its label.
4. At this point, the option buttons and the check box aren't yet
functional. To make them functional, right-click any one of the option
buttons and select Format Control. In the Cell link box under the Control
tab shown to the right, select a cell out of view, such as AA1. Then
depending on which option button is selected, cell AA1 will contain 1, 2,
or 3. Fortunately, you need to do this for only one of the radio buttons.
The others will automatically have the same cell link. Similarly, create a
cell link for the check box to a cell such as AA2. Depending on whether
the checkbox is checked, cell AA2 will contain TRUE or FALSE.
5. Create formulas in the gray cells. You can check that the first three of
these use the INDEX function and references to the cell links that act as
lookups.
Try it! Create your own version of this application, using the steps above.
Try it! Create your own version of this application, using the steps above.
Here is another nice application. It uses the very handy Combo Box form
control circled to the right. Suppose you have a very large table that has
the driving distances between 75 locations. (See the large table to the
right, starting in column P.) You would like to look up the distance
between any given pair of "From" and "To" locations. To accomplish this,
you can add two combo box controls, one for the "From" location and
one for the "To" location.
The application has already been created to the right, using the following
steps.
1. Create the combo box for the "From" location by clicking the Combo
Box form control and dragging it so that it covers cell K68.
2. Right-click this combo box and select Format Control. For the Input
Range, select the gray column range to the right, and for the cell link,
select cell K68. This gives you a dropdown list where you can select from
Location 1 to Location 75, and the index of the one you select (1 to 75) is
stored out of sight under the combo box. (You could also store this index
way to the right on the worksheet, but letting it be covered up by the
combo box itself is a nice alternative.)
3. Create a similar combo box over cell L68 for the "To" location, this
time entering L68 as the cell link. Surprisingly, the Input Range for this
combo box should still be the gray column range, not the gray row range
to the right. Excel always wants the list to be a column, not a row.
4. You can now find the distance between the two selected locations
with the INDEX function in cell M68. For the example shown, it finds the
distance at the intersection of row 12, column 29 of the distance table.
(The INDEX function, a very handy function for exactly this type of
application, is described in the INDEX topic of this tutorial.)
Lining Up Controls
When you use controls, it is important to line them up so that they have a
professional look. If your controls are slightly out of alignment, this is
probably the first thing your users will notice, and because of it, they
Lining Up Controls
When you use controls, it is important to line them up so that they have a
professional look. If your controls are slightly out of alignment, this is
probably the first thing your users will notice, and because of it, they
might lose all faith in you.
For example, the left sides of the three option buttons in the first example
above should be left-aligned. This can be tricky (and time-consuming) to
do, but there is a nice "nudge" trick you can use. Right-click any control to
select it, and then press the Ctrl key and any of the Arrow keys to move
the control slightly in the direction of the arrow. More specifically, here
are Microsoft's own suggestions for moving any shape, including controls,
text boxes, lines, rectangles, and so on. (You can use any or all of these.)
Flat-screen TV
Laptop computer
Preferred customer
Invoice
Format Control dialog box Product Laptop computer
Price $650
Discount $33
Net price $618
Location 1
Location 2
Location 3
Location 4
Location 5
Location 6
Combo Box control Location 7
Location 8
Location 9
Location 10
Location 11
Location 12
Location 13
Location 14
Location 15
Location 16
Location 17
Location 18
From To Distance Location 19
12 29 78 Location 20
Location 21
Format Control dialog box Location 22
Location 23
Location 24
Location 25
Location 26
Location 27
Location 28
Location 29
Location 30
Location 31
Location 32
Location 33
Location 34
Location 35
Location 36
Location 37
Location 38
Location 39
Location 40
Location 41
Location 42
Location 43
Location 44
Location 45
Location 46
Location 47
Location 48
Location 49
Location 50
Location 51
Location 52
Location 53
Location 54
Location 55
Location 56
Location 57
Location 58
Location 59
Location 60
Location 61
Location 62
Location 63
Location 64
Location 65
Location 66
Location 67
Location 68
Location 69
Location 70
Location 71
Location 72
Location 73
Location 74
Location 75
Inputs
Prices
Flat-screen TV $2,500
Blu-ray disc player $450
Laptop computer $650
Preferred discount 5%
Location 1 Location 2 Location 3 Location 4 Location 5 Location 6 Location 7
0 55 13 50 16 49 85
39 0 38 40 21 32 62
57 49 0 80 62 40 51
25 49 87 0 61 14 67
71 63 48 83 0 89 44
61 34 78 62 40 0 77
42 21 26 15 29 90 0
35 10 88 28 71 79 12
53 16 51 68 97 36 10
23 69 14 75 10 18 44
18 78 67 78 100 86 15
11 44 21 23 18 20 13
95 15 33 54 44 46 97
41 60 16 58 82 19 42
81 17 46 96 87 48 27
72 98 97 92 33 35 22
20 85 28 97 91 94 100
91 65 30 28 65 74 29
24 82 21 43 100 82 38
12 68 16 77 31 57 54
86 58 13 40 92 36 19
39 78 60 39 99 39 34
99 53 56 13 93 81 64
47 53 60 29 75 93 39
52 91 96 95 45 21 24
83 29 88 19 27 98 10
76 57 31 96 76 95 57
12 13 32 64 83 100 60
38 16 29 59 11 51 70
78 38 57 79 79 98 17
82 63 35 48 39 14 74
68 96 20 49 80 21 22
87 43 97 99 73 33 92
73 47 68 27 60 36 23
41 62 22 75 20 83 15
86 86 98 62 90 99 84
10 34 96 94 42 21 12
98 21 58 60 61 41 67
67 74 50 38 54 72 85
18 25 12 21 29 11 94
75 44 26 19 83 56 45
100 91 21 85 87 16 57
44 87 52 86 47 35 47
62 69 11 33 68 24 90
37 55 11 66 62 91 91
53 76 17 39 18 41 81
98 75 100 67 54 63 36
26 37 74 22 73 36 94
30 86 62 18 62 83 57
33 65 56 84 13 33 30
53 26 84 65 14 48 38
43 63 10 52 61 86 88
43 37 49 97 45 86 13
83 94 83 84 48 61 35
21 70 82 49 13 62 22
86 25 37 53 42 74 32
86 32 64 64 52 69 60
14 58 75 48 87 50 71
87 78 90 16 80 22 15
98 97 52 70 82 57 61
82 36 94 60 70 72 49
93 26 88 92 30 20 23
95 24 26 23 14 22 82
51 63 57 75 66 12 76
15 58 52 27 57 14 67
99 48 35 50 44 76 84
81 96 88 44 53 95 77
12 54 15 44 54 45 90
62 34 90 29 74 50 33
37 24 86 46 71 92 40
40 47 80 47 61 16 25
57 69 56 17 54 10 79
37 71 37 56 80 100 75
31 13 21 81 88 56 29
50 54 65 74 16 97 65
3
1
Location 8 Location 9 Location 10 Location 11 Location 12 Location 13 Location 14 Location 15
57 71 60 81 17 85 61 83
79 88 68 53 10 49 18 25
93 97 42 25 67 46 16 11
76 59 47 58 17 30 100 23
58 51 84 74 29 66 74 61
73 11 90 48 68 42 47 30
41 69 52 45 51 87 27 81
0 48 70 12 75 12 52 15
23 0 80 18 58 100 74 67
72 34 0 88 61 72 18 62
73 59 71 0 21 99 88 85
79 27 37 50 0 84 90 54
26 38 72 33 34 0 38 73
39 98 68 10 60 95 0 67
100 65 64 19 70 55 63 0
93 35 17 13 53 70 15 89
60 74 27 59 44 27 14 74
97 53 11 32 87 71 91 18
42 22 31 51 94 47 75 93
93 35 34 96 77 84 38 21
64 68 65 16 30 43 84 77
18 23 60 23 64 77 31 19
70 48 91 43 47 41 76 45
28 15 93 19 64 98 97 64
61 17 49 75 82 27 95 78
97 36 86 24 13 38 41 29
28 53 40 24 18 98 58 21
99 77 36 85 38 100 30 37
50 37 85 88 66 58 43 79
93 91 50 87 44 32 26 31
84 74 47 51 80 51 99 69
82 82 46 48 14 58 71 73
52 26 49 54 79 82 16 13
34 22 47 88 87 63 55 94
30 28 99 59 50 46 59 16
18 87 29 96 43 96 47 24
91 12 65 51 51 73 87 14
25 46 47 79 50 43 92 52
53 37 96 70 88 62 93 38
43 95 44 64 57 87 35 78
14 22 75 90 80 55 64 51
100 80 28 23 57 35 79 62
100 94 76 14 99 16 33 53
14 50 30 78 43 12 98 87
62 69 84 99 72 20 59 36
90 89 87 100 15 82 53 97
68 86 16 30 53 87 92 66
66 43 65 30 34 23 40 62
71 23 12 31 31 70 95 34
36 43 91 99 93 11 99 28
34 39 46 47 66 36 56 51
68 76 86 43 17 42 98 74
39 55 61 81 49 29 84 24
32 36 67 65 16 29 42 56
53 54 10 90 81 38 49 85
86 35 17 71 43 85 57 47
92 89 42 46 27 19 76 45
49 49 63 51 43 72 61 73
32 14 86 65 83 18 47 65
16 74 13 11 82 10 38 78
88 90 42 94 98 69 24 82
98 31 28 96 31 50 25 43
52 36 97 18 80 54 42 39
58 66 36 42 46 17 44 62
87 90 24 23 37 26 96 83
11 43 43 94 55 84 36 55
34 100 38 74 38 69 95 66
44 29 29 20 69 44 14 57
84 28 48 53 62 34 99 77
83 40 63 22 30 75 86 85
37 71 85 71 69 16 83 81
93 46 72 49 33 12 34 56
58 85 72 90 30 60 24 65
66 30 19 39 75 32 18 31
52 76 38 41 75 65 72 44
Location 16 Location 17 Location 18 Location 19 Location 20 Location 21 Location 22 Location 23
88 18 98 95 92 18 13 60
74 31 58 68 42 56 55 40
61 32 79 92 12 34 88 12
94 86 19 87 28 11 69 93
30 56 70 96 47 84 67 53
69 91 42 96 66 44 83 15
76 23 100 62 87 97 71 73
38 75 14 68 98 76 19 44
36 69 16 60 71 39 68 44
64 31 90 81 89 43 33 93
17 47 61 46 72 65 69 59
78 65 65 39 15 52 88 54
69 19 53 61 22 58 95 67
43 49 10 87 55 13 32 10
36 48 15 24 35 57 42 49
0 51 44 78 59 27 74 30
99 0 100 81 25 89 59 38
30 11 0 37 34 26 78 39
78 95 39 0 19 37 30 69
30 49 59 78 0 65 16 82
23 91 25 42 65 0 14 37
44 36 45 86 87 86 0 49
72 84 16 15 65 14 63 0
90 70 56 62 12 92 33 99
21 80 80 57 38 55 72 56
55 65 39 53 77 83 62 33
94 48 93 95 97 63 93 26
12 15 32 99 63 26 70 96
75 50 87 53 29 69 77 17
14 56 32 69 36 45 60 89
57 64 39 84 65 81 55 72
85 59 71 62 29 78 61 15
85 14 17 31 63 18 54 24
60 52 59 74 55 55 17 34
31 36 74 92 89 29 64 97
28 58 34 73 30 78 12 53
32 45 80 42 92 15 14 100
21 53 65 100 21 94 27 93
37 42 32 97 12 74 52 80
22 87 96 82 13 52 69 70
48 17 25 76 62 15 22 89
63 54 64 36 77 72 31 26
51 25 84 31 54 29 100 62
67 29 23 46 39 16 12 11
77 64 15 17 38 52 42 95
11 10 24 98 83 57 64 36
90 70 94 32 59 93 92 53
79 83 13 64 47 14 56 80
34 54 58 73 10 41 44 76
29 68 62 45 73 44 96 62
64 33 39 83 56 47 27 29
17 93 35 60 41 37 38 97
17 91 31 85 52 70 85 62
53 15 83 80 66 84 38 29
86 83 31 97 18 95 28 72
54 75 99 30 72 68 94 73
14 99 35 83 70 65 23 75
39 58 53 64 91 99 45 69
48 71 60 62 66 94 38 21
87 25 93 81 32 79 50 18
22 45 26 39 94 17 85 69
42 76 56 13 70 23 100 35
57 70 80 66 35 99 99 43
20 83 57 57 12 15 37 13
64 70 78 68 99 67 33 22
72 54 100 84 62 27 25 53
28 51 95 58 77 66 25 15
81 59 54 77 72 36 30 98
52 10 62 64 51 58 90 22
34 73 32 84 47 71 97 93
68 19 64 47 59 90 82 62
84 80 15 83 78 82 15 15
46 62 50 22 37 98 58 42
73 18 31 59 79 42 81 47
63 61 22 59 24 35 69 34
Location 24 Location 25 Location 26 Location 27 Location 28 Location 29 Location 30 Location 31
37 42 59 59 40 14 56 20
40 27 71 11 80 17 58 36
93 38 36 40 17 75 27 42
82 99 77 50 50 75 81 68
77 75 45 27 56 35 49 26
87 57 82 84 37 74 23 65
64 97 84 29 81 97 26 84
42 63 75 53 95 61 84 97
20 79 82 48 88 22 30 42
88 32 95 46 32 22 17 92
71 53 51 12 27 83 77 45
53 76 28 99 67 78 88 45
47 69 63 55 37 80 69 97
43 73 90 15 71 24 13 10
89 88 20 77 63 63 26 41
90 71 39 70 45 85 62 61
34 65 20 67 64 80 93 72
91 47 88 95 85 24 28 86
41 35 94 96 30 42 90 59
59 44 75 29 17 53 53 64
25 37 97 87 65 17 24 63
63 10 80 13 48 48 51 54
98 63 29 27 89 54 83 58
0 66 93 12 87 50 31 42
21 0 15 27 78 69 92 78
61 74 0 38 29 49 47 19
13 56 27 0 75 89 40 69
65 28 38 61 0 90 23 98
81 34 39 85 44 0 81 22
54 79 38 82 98 97 0 53
14 74 41 37 96 49 89 0
46 77 63 89 49 24 90 33
53 28 12 71 16 44 99 55
41 98 58 40 31 64 78 28
71 57 78 36 91 81 94 75
90 35 60 60 19 92 26 49
19 56 94 14 29 70 79 10
72 100 68 76 62 65 51 56
68 63 41 91 63 28 57 34
56 86 33 43 87 65 96 42
59 79 91 70 79 67 34 25
77 31 80 72 90 82 87 34
85 60 16 75 85 48 89 45
27 46 75 92 45 65 65 51
86 77 30 88 14 99 51 11
85 86 46 93 71 46 60 35
75 89 80 53 46 68 83 26
58 40 97 34 15 70 59 96
95 26 89 82 41 18 48 87
100 73 14 12 15 17 25 54
12 14 50 22 89 32 14 11
83 55 31 61 39 26 70 53
46 15 60 19 18 71 77 18
77 75 23 73 72 93 29 66
20 34 82 28 77 80 63 73
49 16 49 94 41 91 58 25
10 71 56 60 98 36 43 100
48 21 58 51 36 60 46 55
13 15 24 74 48 46 48 61
80 88 98 19 86 77 59 80
48 66 39 64 53 40 45 66
97 60 87 88 87 47 29 58
24 54 49 18 33 79 80 65
36 96 43 28 70 21 60 61
41 65 18 70 21 74 12 62
38 15 25 51 79 64 38 10
82 38 26 53 69 63 33 41
20 91 67 36 89 93 49 73
79 60 20 48 21 19 23 92
100 43 90 19 89 25 13 59
84 74 78 100 26 72 66 76
73 39 53 50 100 27 63 52
38 90 86 65 50 92 30 91
33 73 19 27 46 34 15 93
29 62 87 76 13 88 30 88
Location 32 Location 33 Location 34 Location 35 Location 36 Location 37 Location 38 Location 39
98 88 36 32 94 76 44 34
83 94 91 98 100 34 48 71
41 29 99 71 85 34 91 45
19 78 80 10 72 72 91 46
62 64 75 18 86 67 98 60
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54 77 73 0
S. Christian Albright, 2011-2017, All Rights Reserved Return to List of Topics sheet
Developer ribbon
Background for Macros and VBA Programming in Excel
If you want even more power in Excel, you can automate just about any
task with a macro. Macros are written in the programming language for
Excel and the rest of Office, called Visual Basic for Applications (VBA).
VBA is a relatively easy programming language to learn, but it does take
some study and a lot of practice. (If you are interested, check out the
VBA for Modelers book at http://www.kelley.iu.edu/albrightbooks.)
Even if you know nothing about programming, you can still record
macros to perform some simple tasks. You can then create buttons to run
these macros and place them on you Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) so that
they are always available to you. There are several things you should
know before you start working with macros:
1. There is a Developer tab and ribbon, shown to the right, that you
should make visible. This has various buttons for working with macros. If
the Developer tab isn't visible, right-click any ribbon, select Customize
the Ribbon, and check the Developer item in the right pane of the
resulting dialog box.
2. Starting in Excel 2007, files that contain macros must have the .xlsm
extension ("m" for macro). You aren't allowed to save such a file as an
.xlsx file.
Try it now. Press Alt+F11. This opens a new window. When you are
finished looking around, you can close this window. Excel will still be
open.
Now let's record a macro and then try it out. This will be a very simple Record Macro dialog box
macro that formats the selected cell(s) as integers, that is, as Number
with zero decimals.
1. Make the Developer ribbon visible, if necessary. Select any range such
as the numbers in the gray range to the right, and click the Record Macro
button on the Developer ribbon. This turns the recorder on. It will record
Recording a Macro
Now let's record a macro and then try it out. This will be a very simple
macro that formats the selected cell(s) as integers, that is, as Number
with zero decimals.
1. Make the Developer ribbon visible, if necessary. Select any range such
as the numbers in the gray range to the right, and click the Record Macro
button on the Developer ribbon. This turns the recorder on. It will record
everything you do until you turn the recorder off. Note: There is also a
handy Record Macro/Stop Recording button at the left side of the Status
Bar. See the screenshot above to the right.
2. When you click the Record Macro button, you will see the dialog box
to the right. Fill it out as shown and click OK. You can give the macro a
meaningful name (no spaces), and you can specify where it should be
stored. The choice shown here is the Personal Macro Workbook, which is
the same as the Personal.xlsb file mentioned above. This will make the
macro available at all times.
3. Now perform the task you want to record. In this case, format the
selected range as Number with zero decimals.
4. From the Developer ribbon (or the button on the Status Bar), click the
Stop Recording button. Macros list for QAT custom
5. If you want to see the recorded mcaro, press Alt+F11 and look at the
module(s) under Personal on the left side of the Visual Basic Editor.
(Modules are where macros are stored.) Even if you know nothing about
programming or VBA, the recorded code probably makes sense. With
some experience, you can modify this code to suit your exact needs. For
now, though, you can leave it as is.
6. Now you have a nice macro, but you need a button to run it. To create
such a button, click the dropdown arrow next to the QAT, and then More
Commands to bring up the Customize dialog box shown to the right.
Under the "Choose commands from" dropdown, choose Macros. Select
your recorded macro from the resulting list, and click the Add>> button
to create a button for it on your QAT. The button will have a generic icon,
but if you click the Modify button near the bottom, you can choose a
more appealing icon.
7. Now that you have a nice button on your QAT, try it out. Select the
numeric cells in the red range to the right and click your button. They
should be reformatted.
Note that you were instructed to select a range before recording the
macro. The reason is that the macro will then apply to whatever range is
selected. If you began recording and then selected a range to format,
your macro would work only for that specific range.
Try it! Think of a simple task you perform frequently, like coloring the
background of a range green, changing the number format to currency
with zero decimals, or changing the print settings to your favorite
settings. Record a macro to perform any of these tasks, store it in your
Personal Macro Workbook, and assign it to a button on your QAT. You will
then be a click away from instant productivity!
Developer ribbon