Excel ships with more inbuilt functions than you can shake a stick at.. Each of these functions does a specific job - some are as simple
as adding cells together, or getting the average of a number of cells, while others do strange things that mere mortals like us are seldom called upon to do - like calculating standard deviations, working with chi-squared
distributions or binomial distribution probabilities.The sorts of functions you need to become familiar with in this course are:
- SUM
- AVERAGE
- COUNT
- MAX & MIN
- IF
- VLOOKUP
- and the four mathematical operators:
- * Multiply
- / Divide
- + Add
- - Subtract
Excel provides all the help you need with the syntax (ie how to use each of the functions). Just do this:
Select the Insert/Function menu item. You will then be shown all the functions, arranged by type. Find the one youĞre looking for, and Excel
will tell you what it does, and how to use it in a formula.
Essentially, however, all functions work the way the SUM function works.
- the equals sign
- the function name
- the brackets
- the "parameters" - ie the range of cells or whatever.
SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MAX and MIN all work exactly like this. The last two (IF and VLOOKUP) are slightly different - and weĞll examine them later.
For the time being, letĞs concentrate on the simple ones. It is now time to do the "Practical Task" at the top of the page.
