Get the most out of excel formulas and functions1

F1 Get the Most out of Excel
Formulas & Functions

The Ultimate Excel Formulas & Functions Help Guide

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About The Author

About The Author
Joseph Rubin, CPA, principal of www.exceltip.com (a leading Excel Web
site) is the author of the very successful books:
• F1 Get the Most out of Excel!
The Ultimate Excel Tip Help Guide
• Financial Statements.xls
A Step by Step Guide on Creating Financial Statements
Using Microsoft Excel
• Mr Excel On Excel
Joseph Rubin has over 27 years of financial experience in the accounting
industry. He has served as CFO, Controller and has run his own CPA
practice for many years. Joseph Rubin, CPA, is an independent consultant
specializing in the development of applications using Microsoft Excel for
the financial industry and has instructed thousands of professionals on
Microsoft Excel.
Contact the author -

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This book is dedicated to my family, my wife, and my three children.

Thanks to
Yael Schneebaum
Chris Tobin
Sara Amihud
Without them this book would never have been born.

Thanks to Excel Gurus
Iki Sapoznik
Ido Ben-Horin

Joseph Rubin, CPA

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F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions

How to Use this Resource

Effectively
In the Book
Use the Table of Contents at the front of the book and the Index at the
back to find the topic you are looking for.
Each topic (Q&A) in the book contains the following parts:
•

Title

•

Problem

•

Solution

•

Screenshot

•

Explanation

In Excel workbooks
•

All the formula solutions presented in the book are included in
working Excel workbook files.

On the Internet
•

All the formula solutions presented in the book have been entered
into the www.exceltip.com database. To discuss a specific
formula, visit www.exceltip.com/fx- & the page number in the
book. For example, if you want to discuss a formula from page
100, type the following URL into your browser:
www.exceltip.com/fx-100.

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How this Book is Organized

How this Book is Organized
This book contains 10 chapters, 1 Appendix and Index:
Chapter 1, Working With Formulas
Chapter 2, Text
Chapter 3, Date & Time
Chapter 4, Lookup
Chapter 5, Logical & Errors
Chapter 6, Counting
Chapter 7, Summing
Chapter 8, List
Chapter 9, Miscellaneous Calculation & Math
Chapter 10, Income Tax & Financial
Appendix, List of Functions

Index

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Contents at a Glance
Chapter 1 Working With Formulas ................................................ 1
Chapter 2 Text ............................................................................. 25
Chapter 3 Date & Time................................................................ 71
Chapter 4 Lookup ...................................................................... 159
Chapter 5 Logical & Errors......................................................... 215
Chapter 6 Counting ................................................................... 241
Chapter 7 Summing ................................................................... 289
Chapter 8 List ............................................................................ 331
Chapter 9 Miscellaneous Calculation & Math............................ 361
Chapter 10 Income Tax & Financial............................................. 429
Appendix List of Functions......................................................... 437
Index............................................................................................ 455

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 Working With Formulas ................................................ 1
Inserting, Editing, & Copying Formulas ........................................................................2
Inserting/Editing Formulas ........................................................................................2
Nesting Formulas .....................................................................................................3
Changing an Absolute Reference to a Relative Reference or Vice Versa ...................4
Copying a Formula from a Cell While Keeping the Absolute Reference
or Relative Reference .........................................................................................5
Copying Formulas from a Range of Cells without Changing the Absolute
or Relative References........................................................................................6
Selecting, Displaying, Printing, & Pasting Formulas .....................................................7
Displaying Formula Syntax.......................................................................................7
Displaying Both Formulas and Values for Cells ........................................................8
Selecting Cells That Contain Formulas......................................................................9
Pasting Values ........................................................................................................10
Adding a Comment to a Formula............................................................................11
Printing Formula Syntax .........................................................................................11
Array Formulas ..........................................................................................................12
Understanding Arrays.............................................................................................12
Using Arrays in Formulas .......................................................................................12
Using Range Names in Formulas................................................................................13
Range Name Syntax ...............................................................................................13
Defining a Range Name .........................................................................................14
Deleting a Range Name .........................................................................................15
Using a Range Name in a Formula .........................................................................15
Auditing Formulas......................................................................................................16
Moving Between Precedent and Dependent Cells ..................................................16

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Stepping into a Formula......................................................................................... 19
Tracing Errors in Formula Results........................................................................... 21
Protecting Formulas .................................................................................................. 22
Protecting Cells Containing Formulas in a Protected Sheet .................................... 22
Protecting Cells Containing Formulas in an Unprotected Sheet.............................. 24

Chapter 2 Text ............................................................................. 25
Entering Text ............................................................................................................. 27
Restricting Cell Entries to Text Only....................................................................... 27
Restricting the Number of Characters Entered into a Cell ....................................... 28
Preventing Duplicates When Entering Data ........................................................... 29
Combining Text, Date, & Number............................................................................. 30
Combining Text and Formatted Numbers into a Single Entity ................................ 30
Combining Text and a Formatted Date into a Single Entity .................................... 31
Combining Numbers that Have Leading Zeros ...................................................... 32
Combining the Contents of Every N Number of Cells into One Value.................... 33
Encoding a Sequence of Letters ............................................................................. 34
Combining Text and Numerically Calculated Results into One Output String........ 35
Text Formatting — Troubleshooting.......................................................................... 36
Formulas Erroneously Appearing as Text ............................................................... 36

Avoiding Problems when Numeric Values are used as Text................................... 37
Adjusting a Formula to Return a Blank, Rather than a Zero, When Operating
on Empty Cells ................................................................................................ 39
Checking Whether Cells in a Range are Blank, and Counting the Blank Cells........ 40
Creating Formulas that Only Return Results from Non-Blank Cells ........................ 41
Removing Redundant Characters from a Range of Cells and Resetting the Format . 43
Removing Hidden Apostrophes from Imported Numbers....................................... 44
Subdividing Text........................................................................................................ 45
Subdividing a Mixed String into Separate Cells Containing only Numbers
or Characters................................................................................................... 45
Splitting a Full Address into Three Separate Cells................................................... 47

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Table of Contents

Separating First and Last Names .............................................................................48
Extracting the First N Number of Words from a String ............................................49
Replacing Characters .................................................................................................50
Creating New IP Addresses.....................................................................................50
Converting Numbers with Trailing Minus Signs to Normal Negative Numbers .......51
Replacing Substrings with Numbers from Adjacent Cells ........................................53
Performing Numeric Operations on Substrings .......................................................54
Searching a String ......................................................................................................55
Searching a String for a Matching Word from another String ..................................55
Find the Alphabetically Lowest Letter in a List ........................................................56
Identifying Numeric Values within a Range Formatted as Text ...............................58
Identifying the Case of Letters within Strings...........................................................59

Finding the Relative Position of Numbers within a String........................................60
Searching a String for a Specific Substring ..............................................................61
Determining Long Distance Phone Calls, Based on the Number Dialed .................63
Rearranging & Sorting Text ........................................................................................64
Rearranging a String in Alphabetic Order ...............................................................64
Reversing the Word Order within a String ..............................................................65
Retrieving Cell Address, Row Number .......................................................................66
Retrieving the Cell Address of the Largest Value in a Range....................................66
Retrieving Each Row Number that Corresponds with Successful Matches
in a Look Up....................................................................................................67
Retrieving the Row Number that Corresponds with a Matched Value in
a Look Up........................................................................................................68

Chapter 3 Date & Time................................................................ 71
Date ...........................................................................................................................72
Entering Dates Quickly...........................................................................................72
Calculating Number of Days, Weeks, Months and Years between Dates ................73
Calculating a Date Based on Year, Week Number and Day of the Week................74
Finding the Last Day of a Given Month ..................................................................75
Calculating the Number of Business Days in a Specified Period .............................77

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Calculating a Project’s End Date ............................................................................ 78
Calculating a Required Date According to Two Criteria......................................... 79
Indicating Due Payments, Based on the Current Date............................................ 80
Calculating the Date of the Nth Specific Day of the Month.................................... 81
Eliminating Negative Values from Date Subtractions ............................................. 83
Avoiding Negative Values when Calculating the Number of Days
between Two Dates ........................................................................................ 84
Avoiding False Results when Counting Dates Matching Specified Criteria ............. 85
Calculating the Week Number Corresponding with a Specific Date ...................... 87
Determining whether Two Given Dates Occur within the Same Week .................. 88
Finding the Number of Days in a Given Month ..................................................... 89
Finding the Serial Number of the Last Day of the Month........................................ 90
Adding a Specified Number of Months to a Date................................................... 92
Converting a Month’s Serial Number into Its Corresponding Name ....................... 94
Calculating the Quarter Number for Calendar and Fiscal Year............................... 95
Converting a Date into a String, Indicating the Quarter Number and Year ............. 97
Determining Which Quarter a Specified Date Corresponds With .......................... 98
Converting Older Dates to the Current Year .......................................................... 99
Converting a Julian Date to a Calendar Date ....................................................... 100
Time ........................................................................................................................ 102
Entering Times Quickly (1) .................................................................................. 102
Entering Times Quickly (2) .................................................................................. 103
Adding Time Values ............................................................................................ 106
Adding Text Values Representing Time................................................................ 106
Adding Time Values from Separate Hours and Minutes Columns ........................ 107
Adding a Number to a Formatted Time Value...................................................... 108
Calculating Absolute Difference between Two Time Values ................................ 109
Subtracting Times ................................................................................................ 111
Converting a Decimal Value to a Time Value ...................................................... 112

Converting Text Representing Minutes and Seconds into Numerical Values ........ 113
Converting Times to Decimal Values................................................................... 114
Calculating Military Time Intervals ...................................................................... 115

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Table of Contents

Converting Time Values from One Time Zone to Another ....................................117
Creating a World Time Converter .........................................................................118
Rounding Times Down to the Nearest 30 Seconds ...............................................119
Rounding Times Down to a Specified Time Increment .........................................120
Rounding Hours Up .............................................................................................121
Rounding Time Intervals to the Nearest Specified Time Increment .......................122
Calculating a Building’s Occupancy Rate at Specified Times................................123
Date & Time.............................................................................................................125
Creating Date and Time Stamp.............................................................................125
Convert Date and Time from GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) to CST
(Central Standard Time) .................................................................................126
Combining Data from Separate Columns into a Single Date and Time Value .......127
Converting Text, Which Represents Date and Time, Into Proper Date
and Time Values ............................................................................................128
Calculating the Number of Weekday Hours between Two Dates .........................130
Separating Dates and Times .................................................................................131
Creating a Date and Time Matrix..........................................................................132
Wages, Shifts & Time Worked..................................................................................135
Creating a Timesheet............................................................................................135
Finding the First Login and Last Logout Times of Employees.................................136

Calculating Total Time Worked on a Specific Day ..............................................139
Calculating Hours Worked ...................................................................................140
Calculating the Number of Hours Worked Based on a System of Letter Codes .....143
Calculating Total Pay, Based on Hours Worked Per Day and Hourly Rates ..........144
Calculating Daily Pay, Incorporating Variable Hourly Rates .................................147
Determining Whether a Person Worked a Full or Partial Shift...............................149
Determining Whether a Worked Shift Was Morning, Afternoon or Night .............151
Counting the Number of Shifts in a Specified Week that an Employee
Worked Overtime ..........................................................................................152
Calculating the Number of Hours per Month, Allowing for
Daylight-Saving Shifts ....................................................................................154
Counting Vacation or Sick Days within a Specified Time Period ..........................156

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Calculating Hourly Productivity........................................................................... 157

Chapter 4 Lookup ...................................................................... 159
Retrieving Data Using Text References ................................................................... 160
Retrieving Values Using References Based on Row and Column Numbers .......... 160
Retrieving Each Second Number from Two Lists.................................................. 161
Retrieving Values Using Range Names as References (1) ..................................... 162

Retrieving Values Using Range Names as References (2) ..................................... 163
Retrieving Values from Different Sheets Using the Sheet Name as a Reference .... 164
Retrieving Values from another Sheet Using Date as Sheet Name Reference ....... 165
Retrieving a Specific Cell from Multiple Sheets.................................................... 166
Retrieving Values from another Excel Workbook Using Text References.............. 167
Retrieving the Price for a Specified Item and a Specified Brand ........................... 168
Retrieving Data Using One Criterion.......................................................................... 170
Retrieving from List by Position ........................................................................... 170
Ranking Salespeople According to Sales Figure ................................................... 170
Retrieving the Player Who Scored the Highest Number of Points......................... 172
Retrieving File Name by Matching a Given Page Number in a Book ................... 173
Retrieving Grade Value for Corresponding Mark ................................................. 174
Retrieving the Most Frequent Occurrence for Each Category ............................... 175
Retrieving the Last Value and the Last Character in a Row................................... 177
Retrieving the Last Value in a Dynamic List ......................................................... 178
Retrieving the Value of the First Non-blank Cell in a List ..................................... 179
Retrieving the Most Recent Payment Made by Client........................................... 180
Retrieving the Closest Larger / Closest Smaller Values from a List when there
is No Exact Match ......................................................................................... 181
Retrieving the First Value in a List that is Greater / Smaller than a
Specified Number ......................................................................................... 183
Finding the Maximal / Minimal String, Based on Alphabetic Order...................... 184
Retrieve Value Using Case-Sensitive Lookups...................................................... 186
Retrieving the Minimal / Maximal Values from a Filtered List .............................. 187
Retrieving Smallest Nth Value Match within a List............................................... 189

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Table of Contents

Finding Every Third Number and Returning the Largest of Them ..........................190
Retrieving the Nth Value in a Row / Column ........................................................192
Retrieving Every Nth Value in a Range .................................................................193
Retrieve the Distance between Any Two Cities from Distance Table ....................194
Retrieving Matching Values from Not Adjacent List.............................................195
Retrieving Data Using Two Criteria .........................................................................196
Retrieving an Item from a List that Meets Multiple Criteria (1)...............................196
Retrieving an Item from a List that Meets Multiple Criteria (2)...............................198
Retrieving Sale Price Based on Item and Color Criteria.........................................199
Retrieving a Price from a List that Matches both Category and Item Criteria .........200
Retrieving an Entire Row of Data.............................................................................201
Retrieving the Entire Row of a Matched Value......................................................201
Returning the Entire Contents of the Row Containing the Highest Math Grade .....203
Retrieving Data from Two Different Lists.................................................................204
Retrieving a Price Value by Looking at Two Difference Data Tables.....................204
Complex Retrieval Problems ....................................................................................206
Retrieving the Column Header of the Next Non-Blank Cell in a Row ...................206
Finding the First Value in a Row and Retrieving the Header for That Column.......207
Retrieving the Column Header that Corresponds with a Matched Value...............208
Retrieving the Column Header of the Largest Value in a Row...............................210
Retrieving a Value from a Reference Grid, Using Indexes Listed in
another Range................................................................................................211

Chapter 5 Logical & Errors......................................................... 215
Reducing Complexity of IF Functions.......................................................................216
Simplifying Formulas by Reducing the Complexity of IF Functions (1) ..................216
Simplifying Formulas by Reducing the Complexity of IF Functions (2) ..................218
Create Conditional Formula by Reducing the Complexity of IF Functions (3)........219

Using OR, AND Functions .......................................................................................221
Nesting OR & AND Functions to Meet Multiple Criteria (1)..................................221
Nesting OR & AND Functions to Meet Multiple Criteria (2)..................................222

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Checking for the Presence of Specified Values within a Range. ........................... 223
Handling Errors ....................................................................................................... 224
Ignoring Blank Cells when Performing Calculations............................................. 224
Avoiding the #VALUE! Error when Adding Cells that May Contain Blanks........... 225
Avoiding #DIV/0! Errors when Dividing by Zero ................................................. 226
Ignoring #DIV/0! Errors when Performing Calculations........................................ 227
Eliminating Errors Resulting from If Functions with Multiple Conditions .............. 229
Avoiding Errors when Using the And Function to Combine Multiple
Conditions in Array Formulas........................................................................ 230
Avoiding Errors when Counting Date Values that Meet Specified Criteria ............ 231
Avoiding Errors when Subtracting Times.............................................................. 233
Handling Errors with the VLOOKUP Function ........................................................ 234
Preventing a VLOOKUP Function from Returning an Error when an
Exact Match is Not Found ............................................................................. 234
Avoiding the Occurrence of Unexpected VLOOKUP #N/A Errors ....................... 235
Using a VLOOKUP Formula to Check If a Value Exists........................................ 237

Checking If Matching Numbers Exist in Different Ranges..................................... 238

Chapter 6 Counting ................................................................... 241
The COUNT Functions............................................................................................ 242
Using the COUNT Functions............................................................................... 242
Counting Using One Criterion ................................................................................ 244
Counting Unique Numeric Values or Unique Data in a List................................. 244
Counting the Number of Values Below or Above Average................................... 246
Counting Values that Appear Only Once in a List............................................... 247
Counting the Number of Times a Specified Substring Appears within a Range
of Strings ....................................................................................................... 248
Counting the Number of Cells Containing Text (1)............................................... 250
Counting the Number of Cells Containing Text (2)............................................... 251
Counting the Number of Combined First and Last Names Matching Criteria
in a Dynamic Range...................................................................................... 252
Counting the Number of Times a Substring Appears Within a String.................... 255

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Table of Contents

Counting the Number of Strings which Contain Numbers Meeting Criteria ..........256
Counting Date Values by Specified Date Criteria..................................................257
Counting the Number of Dates with Matching Month Criteria..............................258
Counting Time Values In Terms of Hourly Increments..........................................260
Counting the Number of Values Meeting Criteria, but Only for Every 3rd |
Cell in a Range ..............................................................................................261
Counting Rows of Even Numbers in Two Parallel Ranges.....................................263

Counting the Number of Values from Multiple Worksheets that Match Criteria ....264
Counting Using Two Criteria ...................................................................................265
Counting Rows that Match Specific Criteria for Each Column...............................265
Counting the Number of Values between Two Specified Values in a List..............266
Counting the Number of Values between Upper and Lower Limits.......................268
Counting the Number of Unique Items Sold by Each Salesperson.........................269
Counting the Number of Players According to Their Score in a
Particular Quarter ..........................................................................................271
Counting the Number of Students who Answered "A" to the Second Question .....272
Counting the Number of Excel Files in a List According to File Type and
Date Criteria ..................................................................................................273
Using Date & Time Criteria to Count Entries in a Combined Date & Time List......275
Counting the Number of Items Sold Every Half Hour............................................276
Complex Counting Problems....................................................................................277
Counting the Number of Times Any of the Numbers in First List Appears
within Second List..........................................................................................277
Creating Progressively Incremented Counting Criteria ..........................................278
Counting the Values that Match Criteria in a Filtered List .....................................280
Creating a Summary Table of a Student Questionnaire .........................................281
Counting the Number of YES Responses in a Student Questionnaire ....................283
Counting Unique "X" and "O" Occurrences in a Matrix ........................................285
Creating a Counting Grid .....................................................................................286

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Chapter 7 Summing ................................................................... 289
Summing Techniques & Tips ................................................................................... 290
Summing the Values of Cells Occurring at the Intersection of Ranges.................. 290
Summing Values from Different Sheets for the Same Cell Address ....................... 291
Creating a Summing Formula that Automatically Adjusts to a Dynamic Range .... 292
Summing the Absolute Values of All Numbers in a Range ................................... 293
Summing Subtotals Only from Range .................................................................. 294
Modifying a SUMPRODUCT function to Return a Sum Rather than a Count ....... 295
Summing Rounded Numbers............................................................................... 296
Summing Values Based on Text, Text & Numbers, & Blank Cell Criteria ................ 298
Summing Values Based on Text Criteria .............................................................. 298
Summing Values from a List Containing Numerical and Textual Substrings ......... 299
Summing Numerical Substrings ........................................................................... 300
Summing Values in a Range Containing Redundant Spaces................................. 301
Ignoring Blank Cells Containing Invisible Spaces when Using Array Formulas..... 302
Summing Values Based on the Criteria of a Non-Empty Adjacent Cell................. 304
Summing Using Indirect Cell References ................................................................ 305
Summing Values Using Indirect Cell References.................................................. 305
Summing Across Multiple Sheets ......................................................................... 306
Summing from Closed Workbooks ...................................................................... 308
Summing Using One or More Criteria..................................................................... 310
Summing Positive and Negative Numbers Separately .......................................... 310
Sum Total Sales Except for One Specified Item .................................................... 311
Summing Corresponding Values in Multiple Columns ......................................... 312
Summing Sales Amounts According to Product Category and Customer Name.... 313
Summing Total Sales, Based on Quantity & Price ................................................ 314
Summing Values from Two Ranges, Based on Two Criteria ................................. 315

Summing How Many Points Scored by a Specified Team in Specified Games ..... 317
Summing Expenses Accumulated to a Specified Month ....................................... 319
Calculating Monthly and Accumulated Income, Based on Specified Month ........ 320
Summing Annual Expenses by Respective Quarters ............................................. 322

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Table of Contents

Summing the Number of Hours an Employee Worked During a
Two Week Period ..........................................................................................323
Summing Last N Values............................................................................................324
Summing Groups of Every N Values in a Row ......................................................324
Summing the Last N Values in a Column..............................................................326
Summing the N Largest Values in a Range............................................................327
Creating a List in which Each Number is the Sum of the Previous N Numbers......328

Chapter 8 List ............................................................................ 331
Sorting, Reversing, & Retrieving Values ...................................................................332
Sorting Numbers in Ascending or Descending Order ...........................................332
Sorting Numbers Based on Their Frequency within a List .....................................333
Reversing the Order of Values in a List .................................................................335
Shuffling a List of Values ......................................................................................336
Creating a New List Using Criteria...........................................................................338
Retrieving Unique Values from a List....................................................................338
Retrieving List Values that Do Not Appear in a Second List ..................................340
Retrieving Values that are Common to Two Lists ..................................................342
Creating a List of All Non-Blank Cells in a Column ..............................................344

Retrieving Values from a List that are Greater than a Specified Number ...............345
Checking for Sequences within a Sorted List.........................................................347
Identifying Duplicate Values....................................................................................348
Checking for Duplicate Values within a Range.....................................................348
Identifying Duplicate Rows within a Range ..........................................................350
Determining and Indicating the Number of Times Each Value Has Been
Entered in a List .............................................................................................351
Transposing a List.....................................................................................................352
Transposing an Entire Range of Data into a Single Column...................................352
Transposing a Column into Successive Rows of a Specified Length ......................355
Transposing a Range in Ascending Order .............................................................356
Transposing Values from Columns into Rows, and Vice Versa..............................357

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Chapter 9 Miscellaneous Calculation & Math............................ 361
Averaging Values..................................................................................................... 363
Calculating Average Annual Growth ................................................................... 363
Calculating the Average Growth of a Child.......................................................... 364
Averaging Using Criteria ......................................................................................... 365
Calculating the Average for Numbers Meeting Specified Criteria ......................... 365
Calculating the Average Difference between List Price and Sale Price ................. 366

Finding Specified Items in a List and Averaging their Associated Values .............. 368
Excluding Exceptional Values when Calculating an Average ............................... 369
Calculating an Average, Only Including Prices on Which There Was
no Discount .................................................................................................. 371
Averaging Sales Totals by Day of the Week ......................................................... 372
Averaging Values that Correspond with the X Largest Values in a
Dynamic Range ............................................................................................ 374
Calculating the Average of a Range of Numbers, Excluding the Minimal Value ... 376
Calculating the Average of Every Nth Value ........................................................ 377
Calculating the Average of Every Nth Value, Excluding Zeros.............................. 378
Calculating the Average Value in Every Nth Column, Excluding Zeros ................ 380
Finding Minimum / Maximum Values....................................................................... 382
Finding the Minimum Value in a Referenced Range ............................................ 382
Calculating the Lowest Common Multiple (LCM)................................................. 383
Returning the Nth Largest / Smallest Values in a Range........................................ 385
Finding the Largest Number among Those Meeting Specified Criteria.................. 386
Finding the Score that Was the Nth Highest for a Specified Team........................ 387
Finding the Largest Value from Two Different Lists, Subject to Specified Criteria . 388
Rounding Values ..................................................................................................... 390
Rounding Prices to the Nearest Nickel, Dime, Quarter and Dollar ...................... 390
Dividing an Amount into Equal Payments While Avoiding Division /
Rounding Errors ............................................................................................ 391
Rounding the Calculation of Retail Price and Sales Tax ....................................... 393
Rounding Up / Down to the Nearest Multiple of a Specific Number.................... 394
Rounding Numbers that Meet Specified Criteria .................................................. 395

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Table of Contents

Rounding Numerical Substrings ...........................................................................396
Rounding a Value to Make It Divisible by a Specified Number.............................397
Ranking Values.........................................................................................................398
Ranking a List of Numbers....................................................................................398
Ranking Numbers in a Dynamic List ....................................................................399
Calculating Commissions Based on Sales Rank ....................................................401
Random Calculation.................................................................................................402
Selecting a Set of Random Numbers, Avoiding Duplicates ...................................402
Adjusting Values Returned by the RAND Function ...............................................404
Randomly Selecting a Value from a Range ...........................................................405
Random Selection from a List ...............................................................................406
Miscellaneous Calculation .......................................................................................407
Creating a Dynamic Inventory List Based on Daily Sales ......................................407
Calculating Net Sale Price According to Text Criteria ...........................................409
Calculating the Proportion of Characters from One String that Appears in
another String ................................................................................................410
Calculating the Remaining Credit after Each Purchase..........................................411
Calculating Total Annual Payment Based on Cumulative Monthly Payments........413
Placing the Previous Payment Date beside Each Pay Date in a List.......................414
Restricting the Automatic Recalculation of Volatile Functions ..............................416
Calculating the Percentage of Cells in a Range that Contain a Specified String .....418
Calculating the Absolute Difference between Each List Value and the Minimum
Value in the List .............................................................................................419
Determining Divisibility .......................................................................................420
Multiplying Values from Two Matrixes that Occupy Corresponding Addresses.....421
Converting Decimal Fractions to Fractions of a Specified Number .......................422
Simplifying Formulas by Defining Names for Often-Repeated Parts......................424
Converting Units......................................................................................................426

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Chapter 10 Income Tax & Financial........................................... 429
Calculating Income Tax........................................................................................... 430
Calculating Total Income Tax .............................................................................. 430
Financial Formulas .................................................................................................. 432
Using Financial Functions ................................................................................... 432
Calculating Canadian Mortgage Payments........................................................... 433
Amortization Tables ................................................................................................ 434
Creating an Amortization Schedule ..................................................................... 434
Creating an Amortization Schedule with a Grace Period ..................................... 435
Creating an Amortization Schedule for Random Loan Payments.......................... 436

Appendix List of Functions......................................................... 437
Index............................................................................................ 455

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Working With Formulas

Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Working With Formulas
About This Chapter
This chapter contains fundamentals, shortcuts, tips, and techniques that
are essential when working with Formulas & Functions. It includes the
following sections:

) Inserting, Editing, & Copying Formulas, page 2: This section covers
easy techniques on inserting, editing, and copying formulas,
understanding the correct use of relative/absolute references, and
creating power formulas.
) Selecting, Displaying, Printing & Pasting Formulas, page 7: In this
section you will find techniques on displaying formula syntax,
displaying formulas and values, selecting cells containing formulas,
pasting values, adding comments to formulas, and printing formula
syntax.
) Array Formulas, page 12: This section provides an explanation of the
concept of an Array and how Excel uses Arrays in formulas, You will
also learn how to create an Array formula.
) Using Range Names in Formulas, page 13: In this section, learn about
range name rules, how to define range names, and how to use range
Names in formulas.
) Auditing Formulas, page 16: In this section, find essential shortcuts
and techniques on tracing and moving between precedent and
dependent cells, stepping into formulas, and tracing errors in a
formula.
) Protecting Formulas, page 22: In this section, you will learn how to

protect formulas in both protected and unprotected sheets.

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F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions

Inserting, Editing, & Copying
Formulas
Inserting/Editing Formulas
¾

To open the Insert Function dialog box:
Select an empty cell and press <Shift+F3>.

¾

To open a Function Arguments dialog box:
Select a cell containing a formula and press <Shift+F3>.

¾

To insert a new Formula into a cell using the Function
Arguments dialog box:
1. Select an empty cell, and then type the = sign.

2. Type the formula name and press <Ctrl+A>.

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Working With Formulas
Chapter 1

¾

To insert a formula by typing it while being guided by the
formula syntax tooltip:
1. Select an empty cell, and then type the = sign followed by the
formula name and a left parenthesis, i.e. (.
2. Press <Ctrl+Shift+A> (in Excel version 2003 the syntax appears
immediately after step 1 above).

Nesting Formulas
A formula can be copied and pasted into the appropriate place within
another formula in the Formula Bar by using the <Ctrl+C> and <Ctrl+V>
keyboard shortcuts.

¾

To combine Formulas into one long nested power Formula:
1. Insert the following formula into a cell:
=SUMIF(TB_DB_Level3,A12,G12)
2. Insert the following formula into an adjacent cell:
=OFFSET(TB_DB_Level3,0,MonthSelectionNumber+2)

3. In the Formula Bar of the second formula, select the formula without
the = sign, and then press <Ctrl+C>.
4. Click Cancel or Enter (the two buttons between the Name Box and
the formula in the Formula Bar) to exit edit mode.
5. Select the cell containing the first formula, and in the Formula Bar,
select the reference G12, and then press <Ctrl+V>.

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F1 Get the Most out of Excel Formulas & Functions

Changing an Absolute Reference to a Relative
Reference or Vice Versa
) Relative Reference
When a formula is copied, a Relative reference is used. A Relative
reference is the distance, in rows and columns, between the reference
and the cell containing the formula.
Example:
In cell A1, type the number 100, and in cell B1, type the formula
=A1. Cell B1 is one column to the right of cell A1. When the formula
is copied from cell B1 to cell B10, the distance between the reference
and the cell containing the formula remains one column, and the
formula in cell B10 is =A10.

) Absolute Reference
Select cell B1 from the previous example. In the Formula Bar, select
A1, and then press <F4>. The result is =$A$1.
Copy the contents of cell B1 to cell B10. Notice that the formula does
not change — the formula reference remains constant as =$A$1.

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Working With Formulas
Chapter 1

) The <F4> Key
The <F4> keyboard shortcut has four states:
State 1: Absolute reference to the column and row, =$A$1
State 2: Relative reference (column) and Absolute reference (row),
=A$1
State 3: Absolute reference (column) and Relative reference (row),
=$A1
State 4: Relative reference to the column and row, =A1

Copying a Formula from a Cell While Keeping
the Absolute Reference or Relative Reference
Avoid the nightmare of pressing <F4> multiple times when coping and
pasting formulas.

¾

To copy/paste a Formula without changing the Absolute or

Relative references:
Option 1: Select a cell under the cell containing a formula and press
<Ctrl+ ’>.
Option 2: Copy and paste the formula from the Formula Bar to a cell,
instead of from a cell to another cell.
Example, cell C12 contains a formula:
1. Select the formula string in the Formula Bar and press <Ctrl+C> to
copy it.
2. Leave the Formula Bar by clicking the Enter or Cancel icons to the left
of the fx on the Formula Bar.
3. Select another cell and press <Ctrl+V>.

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