Advanced & Most Important Functions of Excel

Microsoft Excel is a powerful tool to manage and perform data analysis. More than 1.5 billion people actively use MS Excel for various purposes. From its various usages, generating analytical reports, managing data, and extracting data insights, etc, are the prominent cases. We need formulas when it comes to performing calculations in Excel. 

Excel formulas are typically mathematical expressions that help perform the calculations, or you can manipulate the database in Excel spreadsheets. To put a formula in an Excel sheet, you need to begin by writing an equal sign (=) and then the formula. To apply the most important functions of Excel, you need to understand first how these formulas work. 

Remember one thing: Excel formulas serve the purpose of calculations, whereas Excel functions serve different things. Let's clear it further. 

Excel formulas and functions look similar but have different senses of purpose. Functions are codes that are designed to calculate certain values. On the other side, a formula contains references to cells, values, and functions. That means you need to add functions in your formulas if you want to calculate data values.

Understanding and implementing Excel formulas is crucial and can provide you with extensive benefits. Here are a few reasons why Excel formulas are important for you to learn.

⇒ Increase Efficiency: Formulas can save you from entering repetitive values as they can automate the functions. Plus, it can save you time dealing with the data.

⇒ Accurate Data Analysis: Putting the formulas in the right order can result in sophisticated data analysis and informed decision-making.

⇒ Data Manipulation: Using formulas, the manipulation of large datasets is possible. It allows you to sort, filter, trim, and apply other metrics to the database.

⇒ Make Datasets Accurate: Accurate and consistent results are crucial when it comes to accounting and finance matters. However, using the most important functions of Excel can provide you with accurate results.

Using the Excel functions should come naturally to you if you want to take advantage of manipulating your data. Once you get to know how you're going to use these functions accurately, the door for gaining the maximum advantages will open. 

Understanding all the functions can help you explore Excel formulas later on. Anyway, to start with Excel functions, you need to understand the basic work procedures in Excel. To be precise, you need to know all the basic Excel shortcuts first. 

Once it gets along with all the shortcuts, you need to start implementing the most useful functions of Excel in your database. Now, you can start using Excel functions. 

To handle any Excel data-related tasks, all you need to start with a basic understanding of the functions. Let's start this section with the basic functions of Excel, and later on, we'll move towards the advanced functions.

Mathematically, the SUM function represents addition. Using this function, you can add any value given in the Excel sheet. For example, if you want to add the value given in a range starting from B2 to B13, the formula you need to use is =SUM(B2:B13)

To find out the Minimum and Maximum values, we can use MIN and MAX, respectively. Suppose you want to know the minimum value present in the range starting from E4 to E34. For that, you need to apply the function here is =MIN(E4:E34). On the other hand, for the same range, to apply the maximum value, you need to use the function of =MAX(E4:E34).

Now, if you want to get the average value of a numerical range between D2 to D35, you need to use the AVERAGE function. The function code here is AVERAGE (D2:D35). This will bring the average value that exists between the range.

One of the most useful and most important functions of Excel is the COUNT function. With the application of this function, you can count the number of cells present in the cell range. For example, if you apply =COUNT(C2:C5) function, then you will get "4" as the output. It will count the cell range between C2 to C5 (including them).

With the application of the CEILING function, you can turn the cell to its nearest multiple. For example, if D2 contains a value of 3.254, then applying =CEILING (D2,1) can provide the output of 4.

On the other hand, the FLOOR function rounds the number to its nearest multiple. For the same cell D2, which is 3.254, the output will be 3 if we apply =FLOOR(D2,1).