Excel Optimize » Excel Formulas

New functions in Excel 2007

Andrian — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 14:32:53 +0000

Excel 2007 also add some new functions that not available on previous version, those functions are:

IFERROR—Used to check for an error, and display a message or perform a different calculation.
AVERAGEIF— Used to calculate a conditional average (similar to SUMIF and COUNTIF).
AVERAGEIFS—Used to calculate a conditional average using multiple criteria.
SUMIFS—Used to calculate a conditional sum using multiple criteria.
COUNTIFS—Used to calculate a conditional COUNT using multiple criteria.

In addition, worksheet functions that formerly required the Analysis ToolPak add-in (which is shipped with Excel) are now built into Excel. So you have access to dozens of additional functions without installing the add-in.

How To Join Two Text Columns

Andrian — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Problem: As shown in Fig. 257, you have data with First Name in column A and Last Name in column B. You want to merge these into one column.

Strategy: Use the ampersand (&) as a concatenation operator in a formula in column C. Change the formulas in column C to values before deleting columns A and B. Follow these steps. 1) In cell C2, enter the formula =A2&B2, as shown in Fig. 258.

2) You need to insert a space between the first name and last name. If you join cell A2, a space in quotes, and cell B2, the answer will look acceptable. The formula is =A2&“ ”&B2. Copy this formula down to all of the cells in your range, as shown in Fig. 259.

Additional Information: To convert BRITNEY SPEARS to Britney Spears, use the PROPER function. =PROPER(A2&“ ”&B2) will convert the names to Proper Case, as shown in Fig. 260.

This will work for all of your names except names with an interior capital such as “Paul Mc- Cartney” or “Dave VanHorn”. After using the PROPER function, you will have to manually fix any names with an interior capital letter.
Gotcha: If you delete columns A and B while column C still contains formulas, then all of the formulas will change to #REF! errors, as shown in Fig. 261. This tells you that you have a formula that points to cells(s) that are no longer there. Immediately hit Ctrl+Z to undo the delete. To work around this situation, fi rst convert all of the formulas in column C to values.

Follow these steps:
1) Select the data in column C.
2) Select Ctrl+C to copy the data to the clipboard.
3) Without changing the selection, select Edit – Paste Special….
4) In the Paste Special dialog box, choose Values and then OK, as shown in Fig. 262.

5) This converts column C from live formulas to static values. You can now delete columns A and B.
Summary: The ampersand (&) is the concatenation character used to join text cells with other text cells or with literal values in a formula.

How To Calculate Sales Over Quota

Andrian — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Problem: In the spreadsheet shown in Fig. 253, enter a formula to calculate the excess of sales over quota on a record-by-record basis.

Strategy: There are a couple of functions that would work in this situation. For instance, you could use an IF function. Give the IF function a logical test and specify one calculation if the test is true and one calculation if the test is false. If the Sales value is greater than the Quota, the IF function would return
Sales (D2) – Quota (C2). If the sales did not exceed quota, then the IF function would return 0.
The syntax for the IF function is =IF(logical test, value if true, value if false). Thus, as shown in Fig. 254, the formula would be:
=IF(D2>C2,D2–C2,0)

Alternate Solution: Use the MAX function. One parameter to the MAX function will be D2–C2. This number will be either positive or negative, as shown in column F in Fig. 255.

You can ask Excel to calculate the larger of either the calculation in F or a zero. If you think about it, the Max of 0 and a positive number is the positive number. The Max of 0 and a negative number is 0. As shown in Fig. 256, using =MAX() is slightly shorter and quicker than entering the =IF() function.

Summary: To find only positive results of a calculation, you can use either the =IF() or =MAX(0,Calc) function. Either will work. The =MAX is slightly better. Use =MIN(0,Calc) to fi nd only negative values.
Functions Discussed: =IF(); =MAX();=MIN()

Add Two Columns Without Using Formulas

Andrian — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Problem: You prepared a summary of sales by rep for the month. Due to an accounting glitch, someone gave you a similar fi le with additional sales made on the last day of the month, as shown in Fig. 248. You need to add the new sales to the old sales. There is no need to keep the original two columns of partial month’s sales.

Strategy: Copy the new values in column H and use Paste Special – Add to add the values to column B. Follow these steps.
1) Select H4:H22. From the menu, select Edit – Copy to copy the cells to the clipboard
2) Move the cell pointer to B4. From the menu, select Edit – Paste Special.
3) As shown in Fig. 249, in the Paste Special dialog box, choose the Add option in the Operation section. Optionally, also choose Values in the Paste section in order to preserve the formatting in column B. Choose OK.

Result: As shown in Fig. 250, the new sales data from column H is added to the values in column B. You can safely delete column H.

Gotcha: If column B is properly formatted and the temporary data in H is not formatted, the default option of Paste All will cause the formats in column B to be lost. This is why you should consider choosing both Values and Add in the Transpose dialog.
Additional Information: The Paste Special – Add technique has an interesting effect if you add cells to a range that contains a formula. Amazingly, Excel does handle this correctly. Cell D4 contains a formula,
as shown in Fig. 251.

If you Paste Special – Add a value to this formula, Excel changes the formula to add the value, as shown in Fig. 252.

Summary: Using the Paste Special Add technique is useful to add two columns of numbers without using a formula.

Count, average, etc. Without using a formula

Andrian — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Problem: Your manager calls on the telephone and asks for the average price of a particular product. You need to quickly find an average of the prices in Fig. 245. Is there a faster way than entering a formula?

Strategy: The QuickSum feature in the status bar can be customized to show Average, Min, Max, Count, or Count Numbers. Highlight a range of numbers. Look for the QuickSum value in the status bar at the bottom of the window.
As shown in Fig. 246, right-click the QuickSum and a menu pops up allowing you to choose Average, Count, Count Numbers, Max, Min, or Sum. Select Average.

Result: The QuickSum changes to show an average, as shown in Fig. 247.

Additional Information: Excel will remember the setting of the QuickSum area from session to session. If you change from Sum to Average, it will continue to show averages of the selected cells until you change this back to a Sum. Count will count all non-blank cells in the selection. Count Nums will only count cells that contain numeric or date values.
Summary: You can quickly find the average, count, min, or max of a range by using the right-click menu to customize the QuickSum information in the status bar.

Total Without Using A Formula

Andrian — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Problem: Your manager calls on the telephone and asks for the total sales of a particular product. You need to quickly find a total. Is there a faster way than entering a formula?
Strategy: The QuickSum indicator in the status bar will show the total of the highlighted cells. With your manager on the phone, highlight the numbers in question, as shown in Fig. 240.

Result: As shown in Fig. 241, the QuickSum indicator in the status bar at the bottom of the screen will show that the total of those three cells is 691.

Additional Information: It is possible that you have turned off the status bar. If the status bar is not visible at the bottom of your screen after selecting a range of numeric cells, select View – Status Bar from the menu, as shown in Fig. 242.

Gotcha: If one of the values that you select is text, the status bar will show the total of just the numeric entries, as shown in Fig. 243.

However, as shown in Fig. 244, if one of the highlighted cells is an error such as #N/A, then the status bar total will not appear.

Summary: The QuickSum feature in the status bar will show the total of selected cells.

Assign A Formula To A Name

Andrian — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Problem: You have thousands of identical formulas on 20 worksheets, as shown in Fig. 223. Every time that you want to change the formula, you have to edit all 20 sheets. Is there a way to make a formula be variable and change it in just one place?

Strategy: Use a Name, but assign a formula to the name.
Think about what you do when you set up a named range. For instance, you could assign a name of MyData to cell D1, as shown in Fig. 224.

However, when you look at this in the Define Name dialog (Insert – Name – Define), you will see that MyData is really equal to a formula called =Sheet1!$D$3, as shown in Fig. 225.

If you understand this, then it is easy to make the leap that any formula can be assigned a name.
You could define a name called GlobalFormula. When you enter =GlobalFormula in the thousand cells on each of the 20 sheets, it will inherit the formula from GlobalFormula.
Gotcha: Do you remember the topic about R1C1 style addressing? If you were using R1C1 style addressing, then all of the formulas in column C would be identical, as shown in Fig. 226, and this would be an easy task.

However, I realize that no one uses R1C1 style references, so you will have to build this formula the hard way. In A1 style references, each formula is different in each cell, as shown in Fig. 227.

If you want GlobalFormula to =COS(A2), you cannot just write that. You need to develop a formula that takes the COS function of the cell two cells to the left of the current cell. This is possible, but it requires a whole bunch of new functions that you might never have used before. First, look at the InDirect function. =INDIRECT(“A2”) will return the value that is in A2. When you try to use the results of an INDIRECT function in another calculation, it always helps to put the INDIRECT function inside of a SUM function, as shown below.
=SUM(INDIRECT(“A2”))
So, if you wanted to take the COS of A2, you could use the following formula.
=COS(SUM(INDIRECT(“A2”)))
The next trick to fi gure out is how to return the text of A2 to refer to a cell. To do this, use the ADDRESS function. =ADDRESS(2,1) will return the text “A2” because A2 is in the 2nd row, fi rst column. =ADDRESS(52,26) would return “Z52” because this is the fi fty-second row, twenty-sixth column.
Is there a function that will return the row number of the cell containing the formula? Yes, the ROW function will return the row number of the cell that contains the formula, as shown in Fig. 228.

Similarly, =COLUMN() will return the column number of the cell containing the formula, as shown in Fig. 229.

So, you could write a formula that returns the name of the cell, like this one shown in Fig. 230:
To return the address of a cell two columns to the left of the current cell, add a “–2” after the COLUMN() function, as shown in Fig. 231.

Therefore, the formula that you need to take the COS of the cell two cells to the left of the cell containing the formula is:
=COS(SUM(INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN()–2)))).
The actual current formula is =COS(A2)/SIN(A2). This is the formula that you would use:
=COS(SUM(INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN()–2))))/SIN(SUM(INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN()–1))))
From the menu, choose Insert – Name – Define. As shown in Fig. 232, in the Define Name box, type a name, type the formula, and choose Add.

Result: A name is added to the Workbook Names. The name is assigned your formula, as shown in Fig. 233

Now, in any cell in the workbook, you can use the formula =GlobalFormula, as shown in Fig. 234.

Additional Details: Any time that you need to change the formula, simply redefine it in the Define Name box and choose Add.
Gotcha: The Refers to: box in the Define Name dialog is one of the most maddening things in all of Excel. If you want to edit a formula in that box, it is sometimes impossible. For example, if you want to change this 2 to a 1 (in order to refer to B instead of A), you would have to highlight the 2, as shown in Fig. 235, and type a 1.

If you attempt to use the Left or Right Arrow key to move through the formula, Excel will insert a cell address to the left or right of the current cell. Watch, I’ve placed the cursor after the word Indirect, as shown in Fig. 236.

One press of the Left Arrow key will insert +Sheet1!$B$2 in the formula, as shown in Fig. 237.

The main problem with this is that sometimes the formula is so long that you cannot see the end of the formula in the Refers to box. When you try to click near the end of the field and hit the Right Arrow, you end up adding references to the formula.
The only solution that I have found is to click early in the formula and drag all of the way to the end. This will force Excel to scroll to the end of the formula, as shown in Fig. 238.

You can then click and drag to isolate the portion of the formula that you need to change, as shown in Fig. 239.

Additional Details: I try to come up with reasonable examples for the case studies in this book. One day, as I was writing about the conditional sum wizard, the telephone rang and my friend Dave was on the line with this exact problem. So, with thanks to Dave, you have this incredibly complex solution to what anyone thought would be an easy problem.
Summary: Named Formulas can save the day, although they can be incredibly complex.

Use Natural Language Formulas To Refer To The Current Row

Andrian — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Problem: In the previous example, a natural language formula referred specifically to one cell by indicating a row name and a column name. It is also possible to have natural language formulas that refer to a specific column in the current row.
Strategy: As shown in Fig. 221, you have a census of employees and their benefit selections.

The company buys life insurance for anyone under the age of 65. The rate for life insurance is $4 per dependant. As shown in Fig. 222, you can write a natural language formula in E2: =IF(Age<65,Dependants*4,0).

As you copy this formula down the column, Excel will properly calculate the formulas based on the age and dependents in the current row.
Summary: Again, natural language formulas allow non-technical people to write formulas in plain language.

Build A Formula Using Labels Instead Of Cell Addresses

Andrian — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Problem: You hate using cell references such as B2 in formulas.
Strategy: Use natural language formulas. These formulas are fairly amazing. Excel has offered support for natural language formulas for many versions. With these formulas, you can use the headings in a worksheet to describe which cells you want to reference. By default, natural language formulas are turned off in later versions of Excel. To enable them, go to Tools – Options – Calculation and select Accept Labels in Formulas, as shown in Fig. 214.

As shown in Fig. 215, you can now enter formulas such as these: =SUM(East) and =SUM(ABC)
It is important to note that there are no named ranges in this worksheet! Excel is simply looking at the labels in the fi rst column and row of the spreadsheet.

To refer to sales of ABC in the West, you would enter =West ABC, or =ABC West, as shown in Fig. 216.
If you wanted to fi nd the ratio of East ABC to West GHI, you would use this formula =ABC East/GHI West, as shown in Fig. 217.

Additional Information: Amazingly, these formulas can even handle labels with space in them. As shown in Fig. 218, the formula of =ABC Gross Profit will work

Also, if you’ve ignored all of my pleas to have headings take up only a single row of cells, and have a spreadsheet with “Gross” in E1 and “Profit” in E2, you can still use the formula =Gross Profi t ABC, as shown in Fig. 219.

Important: You must refer to the headings in the order that they appear from top to bottom. You can even figure out the Gross Profit on a Gross quantity, as shown in Fig. 220.

Gotcha: If your data set is missing labels, Excel may have trouble calculating formulas that are in cells that are not adjacent to your dataset.
Summary: Natural Language Formulas present an alternative to typical formulas in Excel. They might be great for your boss’ boss who can’t quite get the hang of using cell references in Excel.

Use Named Constants To Store Numbers

Andrian — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 11:49:00 +0000

Problem: You’ve seen how you can assign a name to a cell. It is also possible to assign a name to a constant. This could be useful if you have a number, such as a local sales tax rate, that changes once a year.
Strategy: From the menu, use Insert – Name – Define. Type a name like SalesTax. In the Refers to box, type =0.065 and click Add, as shown in Fig. 212.

In this workbook, you can now use a formula such as =SalesTax*D2, as shown in Fig. 213.

If the tax rate changes later use Insert – Name – Define to change the constant assigned to the name.
Summary: To name a constant in a workbook use Insert – Name – Define, type in the name of the constant, and then defi ne the constant in the Refers to: box.

Excel Optimize » Excel Formulas

New functions in Excel 2007

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How To Join Two Text Columns

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How To Calculate Sales Over Quota

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Add Two Columns Without Using Formulas

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Count, average, etc. Without using a formula

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Total Without Using A Formula

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Assign A Formula To A Name

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Use Natural Language Formulas To Refer To The Current Row

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Build A Formula Using Labels Instead Of Cell Addresses

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Use Named Constants To Store Numbers

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