Microsoft Excel Formulas & Functions 4th Edition
Microsoft Excel Formulas & Functions 4th Edition by Ken Bluttman
Microsoft Excel Formulas & Functions For Dummies, 4th Edition Published by: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030 5774, www.wiley.com Copyright 2016 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748 6011, fax (201) 748 6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. Trademarks: Wiley, For Dummies, the Dummies Man logo, Dummies.com, Making Everything Easier, and related trade dress are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and may not be used without written permission. Excel is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book. LIMIT OF LIABILITY/DISCLAIMER OF WARRANTY: THE PUBLISHER AND THE AUTHOR MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES WITH RESPECT TO THE ACCURACY OR COMPLETENESS OF THE CONTENTS OF THIS WORK AND SPECIFICALLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. NO WARRANTY MAY BE CREATED OR EXTENDED BY SALES OR PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS. THE ADVICE AND STRATEGIES CONTAINED HEREIN MAY NOT BE SUITABLE FOR EVERY SITUATION. THIS WORK IS SOLD WITH THE UNDERSTANDING THAT THE PUBLISHER IS NOT ENGAGED IN RENDERING LEGAL, ACCOUNTING, OR OTHER PROFESSIONAL SERVICES. IF PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE IS REQUIRED, THE SERVICES OF A COMPETENT PROFESSIONAL PERSON SHOULD BE SOUGHT. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR SHALL BE LIABLE FOR DAMAGES ARISING HEREFROM. THE FACT THAT AN ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE IS REFERRED TO IN THIS WORK AS A CITATION AND/OR A POTENTIAL SOURCE OF FURTHER INFORMATION DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE AUTHOR OR THE PUBLISHER ENDORSES THE INFORMATION THE ORGANIZATION OR WEBSITE MAY PROVIDE OR RECOMMENDATIONS IT MAY MAKE. FURTHER, READERS SHOULD BE AWARE THAT INTERNET WEBSITES LISTED IN THIS WORK MAY HAVE CHANGED OR DISAPPEARED BETWEEN WHEN THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN AND WHEN IT IS READ. For general information on our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 877 762 2974, outside the U.S. at 317 572 3993, or fax 317 572 4002. For technical support, please visit www.wiley.com/techsupport. Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print on demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e books or in print on demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com. For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com. Library of Congress Control Number: 2015955844 ISBN: 978 1 119 07678 0 (pbk); 978-1-119-07680-3 (ebk); 978-1-119-07679-7 (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents at a Glance Introduction... 1 Part I: Getting Started with Formulas and Functions... 5 Chapter 1: Tapping Into Formula and Function Fundamentals...7 Chapter 2: Saving Time with Function Tools...37 Chapter 3: Saying Array! for Formulas and Functions...55 Chapter 4: Fixing Formula Boo-Boos...65 Part II: Doing the Math... 83 Chapter 5: Calculating Loan Payments and Interest Rates...85 Chapter 6: Appreciating What You ll Get, Depreciating What You ve Got...103 Chapter 7: Using Basic Math Functions...119 Chapter 8: Advancing Your Math...137 Part III: Solving with Statistics... 159 Chapter 9: Throwing Statistics a Curve...161 Chapter 10: Using Significance Tests...199 Chapter 11: Rolling the Dice on Predictions and Probability...209 Part IV: Dancing with Data... 227 Chapter 12: Dressing Up for Date Functions...229 Chapter 13: Keeping Well-Timed Functions...249 Chapter 14: Using Lookup, Logical, and Reference Functions...259 Chapter 15: Digging Up the Facts...291 Chapter 16: Writing Home about Text Functions...307 Chapter 17: Playing Records with Database Functions...333 Part V: The Part of Tens... 347 Chapter 18: Ten Tips for Working with Formulas...349 Chapter 19: Ten Functions You Really Should Know...361 Chapter 20: Some Really Cool Functions...367 Index... 373
Table of Contents Introduction... 1 About This Book...1 Foolish Assumptions...2 How to Use This Book...2 Icons Used in This Book...2 Beyond the Book...3 Where to Go from Here...3 Part I: Getting Started with Formulas and Functions... 5 Chapter 1: Tapping Into Formula and Function Fundamentals... 7 Working with Excel Fundamentals...8 Understanding workbooks and worksheets...8 Introducing the Formulas Ribbon...11 Working with rows, column, cells, ranges, and tables...12 Formatting your data...17 Getting help...18 Gaining the Upper Hand on Formulas...18 Entering your first formula...19 Understanding references...21 Copying formulas with the fill handle...24 Assembling formulas the right way...25 Using Functions in Formulas...27 Looking at what goes into a function...29 Arguing with a function...29 Nesting functions...33 Chapter 2: Saving Time with Function Tools... 37 Getting Familiar with the Insert Function Dialog Box...37 Finding the Correct Function...39 Entering Functions Using the Insert Function Dialog Box...40 Selecting a function that takes no arguments...41 Selecting a function that uses arguments...43 Entering cells, ranges, named areas, and tables as function arguments...45 Getting help in the Insert Function dialog box...48 Using the Function Arguments dialog box to edit functions...49
viii Excel Formulas & Functions For Dummies, 4th Edition Directly Entering Formulas and Functions...50 Entering formulas and functions in the Formula Bar...50 Entering formulas and functions directly in worksheet cells...51 Chapter 3: Saying "Array!" for Formulas and Functions... 55 Discovering Arrays...55 Using Arrays in Formulas...57 Working with Functions That Return Arrays...60 Chapter 4: Fixing Formula Boo-Boos... 65 Catching Errors As You Enter Them...65 Getting parentheses to match...66 Avoiding circular references...68 Mending broken links...70 Using the Formula Error Checker...72 Auditing Formulas...75 Watching the Watch Window...78 Evaluating and Checking Errors...79 Making an Error Behave the Way You Want...81 Part II: Doing the Math... 83 Chapter 5: Calculating Loan Payments and Interest Rates... 85 Understanding How Excel Handles Money...86 Going with the cash flow...86 Formatting for currency...86 Choosing separators...88 Figuring Loan Calculations...90 Calculating the payment amount...90 Calculating interest payments...92 Calculating payments toward principal...94 Calculating the number of payments...95 Calculating the number of payments with PDURATION...97 Calculating the interest rate...98 Calculating the principal...100 Chapter 6: Appreciating What You ll Get, Depreciating What You ve Got... 103 Looking into the Future...104 Depreciating the Finer Things in Life...106 Calculating straight-line depreciation...108 Creating an accelerated depreciation schedule...109 Creating an even faster accelerated depreciation schedule...110 Calculating a midyear depreciation schedule...112 Measuring Your Internals...114
Table of Contents ix Chapter 7: Using Basic Math Functions... 119 Adding It All Together with the SUM Function...119 Rounding Out Your Knowledge...123 Just plain old rounding...124 Rounding in one direction...125 Leaving All Decimals Behind with INT...131 Leaving Some Decimals Behind with TRUNC...132 Looking for a Sign...133 Ignoring Signs...135 Chapter 8: Advancing Your Math... 137 Using PI to Calculate Circumference and Diameter...137 Generating and Using Random Numbers...138 The all-purpose RAND function...139 Precise randomness with RANDBETWEEN...142 Ordering Items...142 Combining...144 Raising Numbers to New Heights...144 Multiplying Multiple Numbers...146 Using What Remains with the MOD Function...147 Summing Things Up...149 Using SUBTOTAL...149 Using SUMPRODUCT...151 Using SUMIF and SUMIFS...153 Getting an Angle on Trigonometry...155 Three basic trigonometry functions...156 Degrees and radians...157 Part III: Solving with Statistics... 159 Chapter 9: Throwing Statistics a Curve... 161 Getting Stuck in the Middle with AVERAGE, MEDIAN, and MODE...162 Deviating from the Middle...167 Measuring variance...167 Analyzing deviations...170 Looking for normal distribution...172 Skewing from the norm...176 Comparing data sets...178 Analyzing Data with Percentiles and Bins...182 QUARTILE.INC and QUARTILE.EXC...182 PERCENTILE.INC and PERCENTILE.EXC...184 RANK...185 PERCENTRANK...187
x Excel Formulas & Functions For Dummies, 4th Edition FREQUENCY...188 MIN and MAX...191 LARGE and SMALL...192 Going for the Count...194 COUNT...194 COUNTIF...195 Chapter 10: Using Significance Tests... 199 Testing to the T...200 Comparing Results with an Estimate...204 Chapter 11: Rolling the Dice on Predictions and Probability... 209 Modeling...209 Linear model...210 Exponential model...210 Getting It Straight: Using SLOPE and INTERCEPT to Describe Linear Data...211 What s in the Future: Using FORECAST, TREND, and GROWTH to Make Predictions...214 FORECAST...215 TREND...216 GROWTH...218 Using NORM.DIST and POISSON.DIST to Determine Probabilities...220 NORM.DIST...220 POISSON.DIST...222 Part IV: Dancing with Data... 227 Chapter 12: Dressing Up for Date Functions... 229 Understanding How Excel Handles Dates...229 Formatting Dates...231 Making a Date with DATE...232 Breaking a Date with DAY, MONTH, and YEAR...234 Isolating the day...234 Isolating the month...236 Isolating the year...237 Converting a Date from Text...238 Finding Out What TODAY Is...239 Counting the days until your birthday...240 Counting your age in days...240 Determining the Day of the Week...240 Working with Workdays...242 Determining workdays in a range of dates...242 Workdays in the future...244 Calculating Time between Two Dates with the DATEDIF Function...245
Table of Contents xi Chapter 13: Keeping Well-Timed Functions... 249 Understanding How Excel Handles Time...249 Formatting Time...250 Keeping TIME...251 Converting Text to Time with TIMEVALUE...252 Deconstructing Time with HOUR, MINUTE, and SECOND...253 Isolating the hour...253 Isolating the minute...254 Isolating the second...255 Finding the Time NOW...255 Calculating Elapsed Time over Days...256 Chapter 14: Using Lookup, Logical, and Reference Functions... 259 Testing on One Condition...260 Choosing the Right Value...265 Let s Be Logical...267 NOT...267 AND and OR...268 XOR...270 Finding Where It Is...272 ADDRESS...272 ROW, ROWS, COLUMN, and COLUMNS...276 OFFSET...278 Looking It Up...280 HLOOKUP and VLOOKUP...280 MATCH and INDEX...283 FORMULATEXT...288 NUMBERVALUE...289 Chapter 15: Digging Up the Facts... 291 Getting Informed with the CELL Function...291 Getting Information about Excel and Your Computer System...297 Finding What IS and What IS Not...299 ISERR, ISERROR, and ISNA...300 ISBLANK, ISNONTEXT, ISTEXT, and ISNUMBER...301 Getting to Know Your Type...303 Chapter 16: Writing Home about Text Functions... 307 Breaking Apart Text...307 Bearing to the LEFT...308 Swinging to the RIGHT...309 Staying in the MIDdle...310 Finding the long of it with LEN...311
xii Excel Formulas & Functions For Dummies, 4th Edition Putting Text Together with CONCATENATE...312 Changing Text...313 Making money...314 Turning numbers into text...315 Repeating text...318 Swapping text...319 Giving text a trim...323 Making a case...324 Comparing, Finding, and Measuring Text...326 Going for perfection with EXACT...326 Finding and searching...327 Chapter 17: Playing Records with Database Functions... 333 Putting Your Data into a Database Structure...333 Working with Database Functions...335 Establishing your database...335 Establishing the criteria area...337 Fine-Tuning Criteria with AND and OR...339 Adding Only What Matters with DSUM...341 Going for the Middle with DAVERAGE...341 Counting Only What Matters with DCOUNT...342 Finding Highest and Lowest with DMIN and DMAX...344 Finding Duplicate Values with DGET...344 Being Productive with DPRODUCT...345 Part V: The Part of Tens... 347 Chapter 18: Ten Tips for Working with Formulas... 349 Master Operator Precedence...349 Display Formulas...350 Fix Formulas...351 Use Absolute References...352 Turn Calc On/Turn Calc Off...353 Use Named Areas...354 Use Formula Auditing...355 Use Conditional Formatting...356 Use Data Validation...357 Create Your Own Functions...358 Chapter 19: Ten Functions You Really Should Know... 361 SUM...361 AVERAGE...362 COUNT...362
Table of Contents xiii INT and ROUND...363 INT...363 ROUND...363 IF...364 NOW and TODAY...364 HLOOKUP and VLOOKUP...365 ISNUMBER...365 MIN and MAX...365 SUMIF and COUNTIF...366 Chapter 20: Some Really Cool Functions... 367 Work with Hexadecimal, Octal, Decimal, and Binary Numbers...367 Convert Units of Measurement...369 Find the Greatest Common Divisor and the Least Common Multiple...369 Easily Generate a Random Number...370 Convert to Roman Numerals...370 Factor in a Factorial...371 Determine Part of a Year with YEARFRAC...371 Find the Data TYPE...371 Index... 373