Formula Calculations
A very useful aspect of Microsoft Excel is the use of
calculations on you spreadsheet. What I mean by formulas, are
mathematical formulas to perform calculations in your cells. Excel also
lets you perform calculations using functions. There are three simple
functions used in excel. They are the SUM, AVERAGE, and ROUND functions.
The following calculations can be performed:
The calculation is shown with the sign you should enter in your cell.
- Exponentiation (^)
- Multiplication (*)
- Division (/)
- Addition (+)
- Subtraction (-)
Note: Before inserting a formula in a cell, you always have to
start the formula with an (=) sign.
Steps:
To add 6 and 5 in a cell.
1) Put =6+5 in the cell and that will show u the total of 6 and 5 added
together which is 11.
Note: When you put a calculation the answer is always shown. To show
the formula instead of the answer you would hold CTRL and press the "`"
button. (The accent button usually above your TAB button on the
keyboard.)
Tip: Since you could perform more than one calculation in the
same cell you should not forget your order of operations in math (PEMDAS).
So in order to add five and six, then multiply that by 4 and divide the
total by
two. Your formula would look like the following:
=((5+6)*4)/6
Functions:
SUM: This function is used to add the values in cells
together. Example: If you would like to add the cells of A1 and B2
together then you would insert =SUM(A1,B2) into the cell and that would
automatically add both cells together.
AVERAGE: This function is used to average cells together. It
would add the cells together and divide by the number of cells added.
Example: If you would like to average cells A1 and B2 together you would
insert =AVERAGE(A1,B2) into the cell. Excel would add both cells
together and divide it by 2 because only two cells were added.
ROUND: This function is used to round values to the nearest
decimal places. It would round the number to the number of decimal
places you want it to round it to. Example: If you had 13.234522 as a
value in cell A1, and you wanted to round it to the nearest two decimal
points in cell A2. You would insert =ROUND(A1,2) into cell A2. The
number after the comma is the number of decimal places you would like to
round the number to. Excel would automatically take the value in cell
A1, and round it to the nearest two decimal places, which is 13.23.
Tip: To round to the nearest whole number in the ROUND function
you would insert the number "0" after the comma.
Note: If you wanted a range of cells to be added, averaged, or
rounded then you would insert a ":" between the two cell references. So
if you wanted to add cells A1 through to A4 then you would insert
=SUM(A1:A4) and it would automatically add all the values in cells A1,
A2, A3, and A4.