Excel Functions

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Excel Functions

Introduction ........................................................................................................................................ 2

TODAY Function .................................................................................................................................. 2

NOW Function ..................................................................................................................................... 3

SUM Function ...................................................................................................................................... 4

AVERAGE Function .............................................................................................................................. 5

IF Function........................................................................................................................................... 6

Vertical LOOKUP Function ................................................................................................................... 7

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Introduction

Functions in Excel are shortcuts for calculating different types of problems. They allow you to carry out

an action including inserting today’s date in a cell or solving a math problem without having to type out

the entire problem. Normally, this would require you to type out an entire formula, but functions allow

you to save time when completing your task. Each function must have an equals sign (“=”) in front of it.

TODAY Function

With the TODAY function, you can display the current date without having to type it out. Use of the

TODAY function saves time when you have spreadsheets such as daily reports that include the current

date, because you will not have to input that information each day.

Below, the TODAY function is used to show the last date data was updated in the DonationsData

worksheet.

1. Position yourself in the cell you want the date to appear in (cell C2 in our example).

2. Type an equals sign(“=”) with the word “TODAY” and open/closed parenthesis behind it “()”.

3. When you press enter, today’s date will appear in that cell. The date will automatically be in

MM/DD/YYYY format in the Today function. (NOTE: if the date does NOT appear in this format,

go to the Excel ribbon, in the Number group, and change the number format to “Short Date” or

another desired date format.)

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NOW Function

With the NOW function, you can display the current date AND time, without having to type it out.

1. Position yourself in the cell that you would like the date to appear in (cell C2 in our example).

2. Type an equals sign(“=”) with the word the “NOW” and open/closed parenthesis right after it.

3. The date will automatically be in MM/DD/YYYY format; the time will automatically use the 24-

hour clock. Even though the date and time format defaults, you can change the formatting as

described in step 3 of the previous section.

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SUM Function

With the SUM function, the total of cell values that you select can be found.

In the example below, the SUM function is used to calculate the total amount of donations each month

in the DonationsData worksheet.

1. Position yourself in the cell you want the total to appear in (cell E4 in our example).

2. Type an equals sign(“=”), the word “SUM”, followed by an open parenthesis, followed by the

range of cell addresses (starting cell and ending cell with a colon in the middle) for the cells you

want to total (e.g. B4:D4). Then type a closing parenthesis.

3. When you press enter, the total will be entered in that cell. Note that Excel will only sum

numeric values.

4. To complete our example, we copy the SUM function in cell E4 down to the other cells that we

want to display totals in.

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AVERAGE Function

With the AVERAGE function, you can display the mean or average value of a group of values without

having to manually total the values and then divide by the number of values.

In the example below, the AVERAGE function is used to calculate the average donation received by

donation type in the DonationsData worksheet.

1. Position yourself in the cell that you would like the average to appear in (cell B16 in our

example).

2. Type the equals sign (“=”) followed by the word AVERAGE, and within parentheses, the range of

cells you want to have Excel calculate the average for.

3. When you press enter, the average of the cells you referenced will appear in that cell.

4. To complete our example, we copy the AVERAGE function in cell B16 across to the other cells

that we want to display averages in.

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IF Function

Use the IF function to display different values based on whether a situation is true or false. For example,

you might want to display the word YES in the “Adequate?” column if total donations for the month

exceed 19,000, NO in the “Adequate?” column if total donations drop below 19,000.

1. In the cell you want your true or false statement to appear, enter the IF formula. The format is:

=IF(conditional statement, true statement, false statement)

a. The conditional statement is the statement that is being tested in the situation. This will be

typed after the “=IF” in parenthesis. For example, the test could be simply to display

whether a number is above or below $19,000. The conditional statement in this case would

be “E3>19000”.

b. The true statement is the next part of an IF function; it states what Excel will display if the

conditional statement is true. The true statement would be “YES” because this is what the

computer would output if the number in cell E3 is higher than $19,000.

c. The false statement is the final part of the IF function; it states what Excel will display if the

conditional statement is false. The false statement would be “NO” because this is what the

computer would output if the number in cell E3 is lower than $19,000.

2. When you press enter, either the true statement value or the false statement value will be

displayed in the cell.

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Vertical LOOKUP Function

With the Vertical Lookup (VLOOKUP) function, a value can be found based on another value. The vertical

lookup function is often used when you have a value that you want to translate into a different value,

but the different value is on another worksheet. VLOOKUP is vital to any type of business because it

saves a lot of time. Instead of having to copy information from one worksheet to another, the function

will find and copy the data for you. Also, if the original data changes, the VLOOKUP function will change

the “looked-up” values automatically.

For example, you may have a Balance Sheet on one worksheet (“BalanceSheet”) that needs to pull in

total donations for each month that are stored on another worksheet (“DonationsData”). Using

VLOOKUP, we can indicate to Excel that if the “Month” value on the DonationsData worksheet matches

the “Month” value on the BalanceSheet worksheet, then copy the Total Donations value for that month

on the DonationsData worksheet to the appropriate place on the BalanceSheet worksheet.

1. In the cell you want to store the copied value, enter the VLOOKUP formula. The format is

=VLOOKUP(lookup_value, table_array, col_index_num, range_lookup).

a. The lookup_value indicates the cell that you want to look up information for. This would

be the cell on our worksheet that contains the word “January” in our example (B2).

b. The table_array is either a name assigned to a table of data OR a range of cells

containing data. The table array in our example is cells A4:E15 on the DonationsData

worksheet because the data we want to match (i.e., “January”) and the data we want to

bring into our current worksheet (i.e., total donations) is contained in these cells.

c. The col_index_num is the column the information you want to “look up” is in. In this

example, the column index number is 5 because the column that the total donations is

in is the fifth one in the table.

d. The range_lookup value indicates whether you want to find an exact match on your

lookup_value, or whether you will accept the closest approximate match. “FALSE”

returns an exact match; “TRUE” returns an approximate match. This argument is

optional—if not entered, the default will be TRUE.

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2. When you press enter, the “looked-up” value appears.

NOTE: In our example above, we copied the VLOOKUP formula to the other cells in the row, in order to

get the total donations for the remaining months.